Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Nov. 1st, 1868.

Having been called upon to address the Saints this afternoon, I do so with the greatest of cheerfulness, feeling to rejoice before the Lord at having the privilege. I esteem the blessings that have been bestowed upon this people far above all the riches, wealth and honors that could possibly be bestowed upon them by men. There is something connected with the dispensation of the Gospel which has been revealed to us, that is calculated in its very nature to inspire the heart of the true Saint with joy. There is no other religion extant among men, calculated to impart the same joy and happiness as that which we have embraced.

To believe in a God who once freely conversed with His children and took them into close communion with Himself, and revealed to them many great and precious things and filled them with the Holy Ghost, but who, in later times, to another class of His children refused the same blessings, is a horror to my feelings; it would impart no satisfaction, happiness, true joy, or peace of mind to me, or any other person. Yet we have been educated, before embracing the fullness of the Gospel, in a variety of religions wherein we were taught that God was once a God of power, and that in former dispensations He made bare His arm among the people; but we are told by the various religious sects of the day that for the last 1700 years these great manifestations of His power and goodness have been withheld from the children of men.

What satisfaction is this to me or to any real true-hearted Saint of God? If I were very hungry, having fasted a long time, and my appetite craved food very much, what would be the use of me reading of people having enjoyed themselves with a great variety of palatable and healthful food 1,800 years ago? How much would this satisfy the cravings and wants of my nature? Suppose I should find a very hungry people, or many congregations of them, who had fasted until they were almost ready to perish for the want of food, and I should say to them, “Cheer up, brethren, let your hearts be glad and rejoice exceedingly, for the Lord fed five thousand in ancient days on a few loaves and fishes, but you need not expect that He will do any such thing for you.” Do you think such a people would feel like clapping their hands or shouting for joy at such an announcement? I look upon all the sectarian religions of the world, in which our fathers have believed, in this light. Give me a religion that will feed the soul in my day; give me a religion that will privilege its believers to hold converse with God in their own day; that will inspire their hearts with the revelations of Heaven, and manifest those things which are great and heavenly and reveal to them their duties while they live. If I can’t have a religion of this description, I say good bye to all religions. Nothing short of that will satisfy me as an individual.

A great many good and wholesome truths are taught, notwithstanding, by almost every religious society, perhaps we may say all, not excepting the heathen nations, who worship idols. They have a great many good and wholesome principles among them, as well as a great many that are evil, and which are calculated to darken the mind, corrupt the heart, and lead them astray from the true God. If the religions of the day were full of evil from beginning to end; if there were no principles of morality included within them, they would not be calculated in their nature to bring so many into bondage and subjection to them. But because they have some good, wholesome, moral principles mixed with their foolish, vain traditions, and powerless forms, millions are dragged into their snares.

I have oftentimes felt to ask the children of men, how they would look upon a man at the head of a family of children, say a dozen of sons, who condescended to be very familiar and sociable with six of them, the elder ones, and taught and instructed them, developed their minds and led them along, unfolding principle after principle to them; and by and by, when the other six came along, believing him to be an impartial being, and learning of the great blessings bestowed upon their brethren, they ask for similar blessings, but not one solitary soul of the six could get a syllable of information from him. Would you not think that such a father had changed very materially, or that the children had incurred his displeasure to that extent that he would not have anything to do with them? Now this is the light in which God is held up by all the sectarian religions of the day.

We Latter-day Saints have come out from all these vain and foolish doctrines; we have renounced them. When the glorious Gospel of the Son of God was sounded in our ears we received it with joy. We saw, in a great measure, the foolishness of the religions we had been taught all our days; we saw how powerless they were. We saw that they had no voice of angels and that God inspired none of them with the spirit of pro– phecy; we saw that none of them had revelation, or the visions of heaven opened to their minds; and we also saw the doctrines they taught were foolish, vain and false, got up by the children of men without authority from God, and seeing this we renounced the whole of them.

We oftentimes, in our Tabernacle and meetinghouses, have the privilege of seeing the contrast to this. There are some of our children, born here in this Territory, who, perhaps, have never formed much of an idea respecting the false doctrines with which our forefathers have been bound down for generations. It is true we occasionally tell them, but they cannot realize it as if they had experienced it for themselves.

I consider that the most of what we heard delivered from this stand this forenoon was very good; and according to my views, the principles advanced were wholesome as far as they went. But sound these doctrines to the bottom, and we shall find that they who advocate them believe that King James translation of the Bible contains the last revelation God ever did give, or that He intends to give to the human family. That is what they themselves tell us. Now, what particular use is it to preach up morality and many other good things, and then connect it with a doctrine of that kind? You may think I am hard, but I could not help, while listening this forenoon, contrasting this people with all the light and knowledge that God has poured down from the heavens upon them, with the formal, powerless systems of the children of men in which we were so long traditionated.

When we hear salvation preached we know it is true; when we hear that Jesus is the Author of salvation to all those who obey Him, we know that is true. But when we ascend still further in these great and sublime principles we find that, besides believing that Jesus is the Author of salvation, we must know what He requires of the children of men, and then obey it. We must find out and understand that He is the same Author of salvation that He was in ancient days; that if He did converse with His children in former days, being the same Author of salvation and unchangeable in His nature and attributes, He is willing to speak to His children in these times. Could you get the religious world to believe in or preach such a doctrine? No. Why? Because it contradicts their creeds. They have surrounded themselves as it were with a peck measure and have said to their proselytes, “So far shall you go in this belief and no farther.” You may believe just what the ancients have written, but you must not believe anything further. You may believe that God spoke to Moses and delivered the children of Israel by His power; but you must not believe that He will ever raise up a Moses in our day. You may believe that God gave the keys of His Kingdom to the Apostle Peter, and gave him the power to unfold the principles of eternal life in his day, but you must not believe in any man holding the keys in these days. These are their creeds, and they will cut you off from their church if you profess to believe in new revelations, or in anything not contained in the Bible.

I did not think, when I arose, of saying anything about this subject, but it came into my mind. There are so many great and glorious principles which God has revealed to this people that it seems as though we can hardly get time to speak about the false doctrines of the children of men. We wish to talk about things more glorious; things which are cal– culated to revive the hearts of the Saints, to fill them with joy, peace and happiness, and to inspire them with the hope of blessings to come.

We Latter-day Saints have not only embraced the first principles of the Gospel, but we have assembled ourselves from many nations and come here to these isolated vales with the understanding that we were to be taught more perfectly in the ways of the Lord. If we have gathered with any other feelings or views in our hearts we have made a mistake. The Lord our God could not teach, and build us up in the ordinances of His Kingdom, without making us one people. We are expecting to obtain salvation; that is our great object. If that had not been our object but very few people would have come so many thousand miles into this comparatively desert region. This proves the sincerity of those who have gathered; it proves that they have been willing to do almost anything if they could but obtain that salvation which they longed for, and which they desired with all their hearts. You therefore expect, if you are true Saints, as I have already observed, that when you come here you will be taught more perfectly in relation to your duties. Perhaps some may have formed erroneous ideas in regard to these teachings, thinking in their own hearts that when they arrived in Zion—the great place of gathering, they would be taught more perfectly in spiritual duties, and be continually fed with spiritual things. Perhaps some may have imbibed the idea that God would not inspire His servants to say much in regard to temporal matters. This is one of the things we have learned in the world. We not only learn that God does not speak in our day, and that He has no prophets nor inspired men, but we also learn that every man must be for himself, and, so far as property is concerned, the devil for us all. We have been thoroughly taught this lesson, it has been instilled into our very constitutions; and to think that God has nothing to do with temporal matters, and that He can prepare His people to enter the celestial Kingdom and be made one and equal, as it were, in the enjoyment of heavenly things, and yet be as divided as the east is from the west in regard to temporal things, has become a second nature to us. Even the Latter-day Saints, with all their information and knowledge and the blessings they have received, can hardly conceive that the Lord has any business to teach them how to proceed in regard to their temporal business.

The Lord says, “Unto me all things are spiritual.” Did God make this earth? Yes. Well, it was a spiritual work. He spake, His word went forth out of His mouth, the elements were brought together and organized, and the earth was made very good. It was a spiritual work. We may call it temporal; but, God, in all things pertaining to His works, is spiritual, and all things to Him, as He says in one of the revelations, are spiritual. But unto you, ye Latter-day Saint, because of your traditions, He has made a little distinction, and called same things temporal and some spiritual. In the great day of the fullness of the redemption that is promised to the Saints, for which we all hope, do we expect to be admitted into the presence of a Being who has no materiality about Him? Do we expect to be admitted into a heaven that consists of spiritual things according to our ideas? Do we expect when we get there that we will find beings in whose image we are, and yet they be intangible and without substance? If we are material, so will they be. If we have flesh and bones after the resurrection, so will they have flesh and bones. If we are male and female after the resurrection, so will they be in heavenly society. If we have thrones of a material nature, so will they have, and their thrones will be just as material in their nature as the thrones of this world. It is true that those personages, their thrones and the elements by which they are surrounded will all be pure. They will be uncontaminated by sin, being so purified and sanctified that sin will have no dominion there. But because everything there is pure, it does not make it altogether immaterial in its nature, it is still an enduring substance. And when we receive our inheritance there, we shall receive a tangible inheritance, a spiritual inheritance, and a material inheritance. Will it consist of land? Yes, just as much as the land on which we walk; but the land will be purified and sanctified. It will neither be contaminated nor unclean, and none but the clean, pure and sanctified will possess inheritances there. Do we have material books here in this world from which we gain information? Yes. Will they not be material also in that world? Will there not be books and records there in abundance? Will not the acts and doings of the children of men be recorded in books in that world? Will not your sealings and blessings, and the powers and keys that have been bestowed upon you be recorded there in books, as well as in books in this world? Well, then, it is all spiritual and it is all material in its nature. Are we to possess these spiritual and eternal riches that world? We are told in numerous laws which God has given that all of this people are to be made one as it were. No division there; no quarreling about property; no such thing as one person sitting away down in rags and another lifted up with immense riches. What do we read in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, in a revelation given to Joseph in the early rise of this church, speaking of the property that was placed in the hands of certain individuals who had entered into covenant and an everlasting order? The Lord says, “You are merely stewards; these properties are mine, or else your faith is vain.” “And,” says the Lord, “except you are made equal in the bonds of earthly things, (that is in property) you cannot be made equal in the enjoyment of holy and eternal riches.”

Well, if there is to be an equality in the eternal worlds throughout all the celestial hosts in the enjoyment of eternal riches, is it not necessary for the Latter-day Saints to begin to be one, in some measure at least, in regard to their possessions here in this world?

How thankful I have been in looking at the great movements that are taking place, this Fall, in our midst. What a great revolution is taking place, pointing to this union! Not in its perfection, for the people are not prepared for it. A perfect order cannot be introduced yet; that will exist when you go back to Jackson County. We have not yet learned the lesson that we are but stewards over what the Lord places in our hands. We have not yet learned the law which should govern and regulate these matters. Ever since we entered these valleys every man has been for himself more or less. The merchant to trade and traffic and gain all he could possibly rake and scrape together. The mechanic, the farmer and the manufacturer have done the same; and each one, in all the various branches of business that have been carried on in our Territory, has been constantly grabbing here and grabbing there, each trying to get rich the soonest and to become a millionaire without any great exertion.

Now supposing that one man could possess his tens of millions, what satisfaction is there in that? If a man is engaged in the mercantile profession and is able to lay up gold like the dust of the earth so that he could buy the people of the whole Territory, what happiness or satisfaction would that give him? The satisfaction such a man would enjoy is as I heard a certain merchant relate not long since—“that he had to put wet cloths over his head in order to keep his brain from being turned inside out,” through the care, perplexity and difficulty he encountered in trying to manage in this way, and that way and the other way. What for? Why to grasp and gain more and to heap up property. There is not much happiness, when a man gets into a condition that his whole soul is drawn out after property, and his whole mind, as it were, is carried away with it. How much greater satisfaction it should give to that man to see all the people get rich alike, so far as they can under the present imperfect order of things. It is true all have not the same intellect or capacity; all do not understand mercantile affairs, neither do all understand the various branches of business carried on by the people of this Territory. All may not be able to gather together and heap up wealth alike; but still a poor man may be an honest man; a poor man may be a good man. A poor man who has not the faculty for heaping up riches, may, at the same time, be sincere and honest in his heart, and be striving to do just as much good as the man who is constantly racking his brain trying to obtain property. And how much more satisfactory it would be to the real true-hearted merchant Saint to see all his brethren getting rich and wealthy than it would be to see his millions multiplying around him, and thousands of his brethren sunk into the lowest depths of poverty, many of them scarcely knowing where to get the next meal of victuals.

This inordinate desire for riches is a gentile tradition that we were taught before we came into this Church. We brought these feelings into the church; and when we embraced the Gospel we verily thought it was all spiritual, and had nothing to do with temporal matters. We came to this valley, filled with these notions and traditions. But it is time now that we began to awake up and listen to the counsel of him who is our leader, our Prophet and President. He has been telling us all the day long that we must become more united, that me must seek with all our hearts to be one, not only in regard to baptism and the laying on of hands, and doctrine generally; but united in our interests as a people, in order that we may build up the kingdom of God and extend its borders, that when the time shall come for that great central city to be built up on the consecrated spot this people may have wealth in their possession to perform the work of God. Instead of that now poverty reigns, and I have sometimes thought it would reign until the order of things is changed. Thank God there seems to be now a beginning, a pointing forward to the time when this union shall be brought about. I believe the people now are better prepared to bring about this revolution than they have ever been. Why? Because they have had a long experience. They have had both sides of the question laid before them. By their own acts in this Territory during the last twenty-one years they have seen the results of every man grasping for himself. These results which have been manifested before them for years, and which are waxing stronger and stronger, are building up a power in the midst of this Territory that will cause the Latter-day Saints sorrow in time to come if they do not wake up. But the wealthy men, the merchants, those who have their hundreds of thousands are beginning to wake up, and they are taking hold with a feeling of interest to build up the Kingdom of God according to the counsels which God has imparted to them by the mouth of His servants. If this counsel can only be carried out, not only in our mercantile arrangements, but in every other branch of business necessary for the well being of the people of this Territory, you will find that they will multiply their riches a hundredfold quicker than they will if they act individually.

Has God said anything about temporal riches? Yes. He told this Church, before it was one year old that we should become the richest of all people. His words will be fulfilled. The Lord says we shall not only have the riches of eternity, but we shall have the riches of the earth. God does not care how much wealth His people have, provided they obtain it according to the law he has instituted. Do you suppose that the Lord wants His people to be always bound down with the shackles of poverty, distress and suffering? No. He is willing that you should have your hundreds of thousands. But He wants the riches of His people to be, at all times, in a position to be used, not to aggrandize themselves alone, but for the building up of His latter-day Kingdom here on the earth. We have got that to do. The Lord has decreed in this book that He will consecrate of the riches of the gentiles that embrace His Gospel, unto the poor of His people who are of the House of Israel. Now can we get away from that? No. Here are hundreds of thousands of the poor of His people of the House of Israel on these mountains and in North and South America. God has not forgotten them, though they are degraded to the level of the brute beasts, though they are wandering because of the iniquities and apostasy of their fathers. Although they are in this forlorn and outcast condition, God has not forgotten the promises made to their fathers. They are to be lifted up, and it is to do this work that we are privileged to enjoy their land. We are not in possession of our land of promise particularly, only as we obtain it by a renewed promise; but we are inheriting a land that was given to the remnant of Joseph, and God has said that we must be remembered with them in the possession of this land.

If, then, the remnant of Joseph can furnish us a land of promise on which to dwell, and on which to build our buildings and become strong, ought we not in turn to take those riches which we earn by our own industry, and use them for the redemption of that people? We have got to do it. It is the work on our hands. And if we do it we must rid ourselves of this covetous principle that prompts us to take all that we can grasp, and say, “this shall be for me and my family, that I may aggrandize myself, and have things around me far superior to my neighbors.”

This principle must be eradicated from our natures; and I think, so far as my poor weak judgment goes, a foundation has been laid, and a plan devised that will affect every branch of business from the mercantile establishment down to the farmer and mechanic. Everything must be or– ganized according to the law of Heaven. This will prepare us for the more perfect law that will come in force, when the Lord shall command this people to go back to the place where the central city shall be built. We have to build that city; we have to furnish riches to do it. We must prepare ourselves for it; and when we get there, there will be more perfect order established than that which is now being instituted.

God has not permitted us yet to enter a perfect order. He told the people when they were scattered from that land to let those laws which He had given concerning the properties of His children be executed and fulfilled after the redemption of Zion. Now, I doubt whether you can execute them before that time; but you can get as near to them as you can, so that you may not be wholly strangers to the order which God will in– troduce when you go back to that land. For thus saith the Lord God in one of the new revelations which He has given, recorded in the history of Joseph the prophet, “Behold I will send one mighty and strong, clothed with light as a garment, whose mouth shall utter words—eternal words, and whose bowels shall be a fountain of truth, who shall divide to the Saints their inheritances.” He will send one ordained to this purpose, and to fulfill this particular duty, that the Saints may receive their inheritances after they have consecrated everything in their possession. Then we can build up a city that will be a city of perfection, “the perfection of beauty.” I want to see that day, whether in the flesh or out of it, and rejoice in it, and partake of its glories. May God bless you. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Oct. 6th, 1868.

Through the mercies of our God we have assembled here in the capacity of a Conference to receive instruction and impart the same.

There are a great many points connected with the Zion of our God, now being established on the earth, which are necessary for us as a people to understand. God has not gathered us out from among the nations of the earth into these valleys without having a great purpose in view. Whatever portion of His purposes I understand I desire to abide by with all my heart, and I presume that every honest, upright Latter-day Saint desires the same.

We came to this formerly isolated place, and separated ourselves as far as we possibly could from what was termed civilization, not because we really desired to do so, or because of the fertility of the soil in this region, or the advantages we would enjoy in temporal things; but because we were in a measure obliged to do so. It is true that the Lord foretold to us, through the mouths of His servants, that the day would come when we should have to flee from our enemies, and that we would settle west of the Rocky Mountains. When we were dwelling in the State of Illinois, and had had a few years of comparative peace, the Spirit of the Lord rested upon His servant Joseph and made manifest to him that the wicked had it in their hearts to uproot His people who were established in Nauvoo, the same as they had done in our former settlements. The testimony of the Spirit to the servant of God was, that however peaceable the people around us might seem, yet, if they would not receive the Gospel and acknowledge the authority which God had restored from Heaven, they would fight against His people. Our Savior said, “he that is not for us is against us.” The truth of this saying we, as a people, have proven since the day that Joseph took the plates of the Book of Mormon from the hill Cumorah, in the town of Manchester, Ontario county, State of New York; and even before he succeeded in getting the plates, some seven years before the Lord entrusted them to his care, the prophet Joseph proved the truth of this saying. The Lord revealed himself to this youth when he was between fourteen and fifteen years of age, and as soon as he related this vision, although at that young and tender age, the wrath and indignation of the people were stirred up against him.

From that time, until he was between twenty-one and twenty-two years of age the opposition was continued. It did not matter how righteous, humble or meek he was; it did not matter how straightforward his course of conduct was, all that the world wanted to know was, Does he profess something different from our religious notions? Does he believe that the heavens can be opened to men in our day? If so, the order of the day was, “persecute him.” Let every religious minister speak against him from the pulpit, let all pious hypocrites of all sects and parties unite with the drunkard, swearer and blasphemer and persecute the poor boy.

This is the enmity that exists between that which is of God and advanced of the Almighty, and that which is ordained of man and by the power of the Devil; they are at swords’ points against each other. They always have been from the period man first accepted this earth, down to the present time. There has been no union between them; it is impossible for them to fellowship one another.

Wickedness and righteousness are in direct opposition. The Devil is opposed to God, and God is opposed to the Devil. All the heavenly hosts are opposed to wickedness, and all persons who are wicked are opposed to the heavenly hosts. This will be so as long as there are wicked people in existence. It does not matter how smooth they may be in their outward appearance, or how sociable they may be in their conversation. They, with their tongues, may make you think they are the most gentle, polite, civilized and moral people on the face of the earth, while within their hearts lurks a poison which would destroy the Saints of the living God.

As this has been the case in every former age and dispensation, so it is now; hence the Latter-day Saints in every part of the globe are commanded to gather out from the midst of wickedness, corruption and priestcraft, and every abomination that exists, and assemble themselves in one place. For what purpose? That we may be separated from the world and its corruptions, which would otherwise work our temporal and spiritual destruction. We have come here, then, in obedience to this command, and we have labored and toiled with all our might to redeem this barren country and to render it capable of sustaining us. What other people on the face of the whole earth have had to toil as the Latter-day Saints have? In some of the poverty stricken districts of Europe, where all the capital is in the hands of the rich and where the poor are made slaves, it may be that some of the latter have to work as hard as we have to work here. But without being placed in such circumstances we have been compelled to undergo this toil. When we came here we were more than a thousand miles from any place where we could obtain the comforts and necessaries to preserve life. We could not live if we could not labor. We were obliged to go for miles into the rugged canyons and there labor and toil month after month to open up roads to obtain timber for fuel, for building, and for fences for our farms. In addition to this severe toil we had to open water ditches from the canyons in order to obtain water to spread over the face of this barren soil, that the desert might be reclaimed and made to yield us a subsistence. This is the labor which the first settlers who came here had to perform, and this was the way they made this country. And were it not for the poor Latter-day Saints who were driven by their enemies from city to city and from State to State, and who ultimately were driven, twenty-one years ago, to the great interior of these mountains where they established a colony, where would have been the railroad now? Would there have been any railroad across these mountains? I doubt whether there would have been pioneers among the wicked suffici– ently brave to have launched forth into this wild country and have settled in the midst of the Rocky Mountains, unless they had repented of their sins and had become one with the Latter-day Saints. The wicked never would have done it, or another century, at least, would have passed away before settlements to any very great extent would have been found in the midst of these mountains.

If it had not been for the “Mormons” where would have been the gold mines of California? They might not have been opened up for fifty years yet if it not had been for the Mormon battalion, which went forth to fight the battles of the nation in her war with Mexico. Had it not been for this the world might still have been in ignorance of their existence unless God, for the accomplishment of His own wise purposes, had revealed them in some other way. The settlement, in the heart of the American continent, of the Latter-day Saints established a great highway across the continent, so that the people, in their journeyings from the Atlantic to the Pacific have found a place where they could rest their weary heads as they passed through. The settlement of this Territory has materially facilitated the opening up of the adjoining Territories. If it had not been for the Latter-day Saints settling this Territory, when would Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Arizona or Nevada have been settled?

In 1831, when we went into Jackson County, Missouri—then a comparatively new country, and commenced to lay the foundation of new settlements, the great complaint against us was that we were not the old settlers. Their cry was, “You Mormons are not the old settlers, and you have neither civil nor religious rights here.” “What is the reason?” we would enquire; “Are we not American citizens?” “Oh, yes,” said the people in Jackson County, “you are American citizens, but we are the old settlers, and consequently you must leave this part of the country.”

After we had been driven out of Jackson County into Clay County, and had been there a few years, the people rose en masse and said to us again, “You Mormons have no right in Clay County.” And when we enquired why, the reply again was, “because you are not the old settlers.” After dwelling there two or three years, an edict was issued by a mass meeting of the people assembled at Liberty, that we must seek a new location. We then fled to Caldwell County, in the State of Missouri. But, alas, after having bought a great many thousand acres of land and given signs of prosperity far beyond that of the old settlers who lived in surrounding counties, they, emboldened by the example of the people of Clay County, got up the old cry, and after having destroyed our farms and property they, in the midst of a severe winter, drove us into Illinois.

There we again gathered up our people, and not yet discouraged, we purchased a large tract of country on both sides of the Mississippi and founded a city called Nauvoo, to which a charter was given by the Legislature of Illinois. In a short time, the people of the regions round about were excited to jealousy, because the Latter-day Saints, through their industrious habits, were flourishing and were beautifying and extending their city; they could not bear to see us outstripping them. They saw that the people of Missouri had never been brought to account for murdering our people and robbing them of millions of dollars’ worth of property, so they, in Illinois, made up their minds to take a similar course. Said they, “You Latter-day Saints are new settlers, and if we suffer you to remain you will soon be able to outvote us for all the officers of the county. But you have no civil nor religious rights here, and you must leave your fine farms, houses, cities, towns and villages, and you must go out of the United States. We will make a treaty with you as if you were a foreign nation, and you must undertake that you will not settle again within the bounds of the United States, and your only salvation is to go west beyond the Rocky Mountains, nearly 1,500 miles from your present abode.” We felt that this was the only course we could adopt, so we left in the month of February, 1846. After ferrying some of our teams across the Mississippi, the river froze over so hard that the remainder crossed on the ice. In this cold weather we camped out on the prairie, and took up our march for this place, our enemies expecting that they had seen the last of us, that we should most certainly be killed by Indians or die by famine. We reached this portion of the Rocky Mountains, then under Mexican rule, and settled here. By and by, after the war between the United States and Mexico, a treaty was made between them, and this land, which we occupied and to which we had been driven by our enemies, was ceded to the United States.

I have already told you what we have done here, the toils we have undergone, and the hardships we have suffered; and that we are gathering in our people from among the nations that we may enjoy civil and religious liberty, which are guaranteed by the Constitution of our country. We do not ask the United States for anything more. We do not want liberty that is not thus guaranteed; but we demand that liberty to which, as American citizens, we are entitled as a sacred right. And in having this liberty we shall have the liberty of dealing with whom we please, providing we infringe no law. That is the right of all American citizens. It does not matter whether they are Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Democrat, Whigs, or whatever they maybe, all have the undoubted right guaranteed to them, by the laws of our country, to deal just as they please and with whom the please if they do not infringe upon the laws nor injure their neighbors.

Ever since the settlement of this Territory I have felt how much better it would be if this people would unite together and appoint their merchants to go and buy their goods and bring them here and sell them at a reasonable profit to the rest of the community, and never trade here to the amount of one dime with those who are outside of us. But while this has been my feeling it has not been the feeling of all, for we have supported scores of merchants who have not been members of our Church. Have we done this because they were our friends? I will tell you the only thing that proves the existence of friendly feelings on the part of outsiders to this people—when they repent of their sins, and receive the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God has said, in the revelations which He has given in these days, “There is no people on the face of the whole earth who do good save it be those who are ready and willing to receive the fullness of my Gospel.”

We have proven this from the beginning of this work. There never has been yet, with all the apparent friendliness and politeness of outsiders, a proof of good will rendered to the Latter-day Saints, except it has been a willingness to receive the Gospel. Yet, notwithstanding that the word of the Lord and our experience have proven the truth of this, we have fostered these individuals in our midst for nearly twenty years. We have given them our grain, and have impoverished the Territory by paying millions and millions of our money into their hands. What have they done with it? Why, some who have been changed from poor men into heavy capitalists by the hundreds of thousands they have drained from this people, have gone away and used all the influence they could to destroy us. Did they appear to be friendly when in our midst? O, yes, you would have thought they were the most friendly and polite people imaginable. Why the Latter-day Saints never saw such manifestations of politeness, gentility and friendliness as were made by some of those we have nourished in our midst. What was the cause of this apparent friendliness? The dimes and dollars, the wheat, flour, produce, cattle and means that you had in your possession. It was the hope of gain which made them friendly, for that was the god they worshipped. But when they have made fortunes out of the Latter-day Saints and gulled them all they could they have gone and tried to destroy them.

As an individual I do not care how much a person in this place, outside of the Church, professes; if he will not repent of his sins and receive the message God has sent, I will not give him my dimes nor dollars if I know it. This ought to be the feeling of this whole people, otherwise we have got Babylon right in our midst. We have prayed a long time for God to deliver us from Babylon, and we have been gathered out, as we supposed, from Babylon; but we can soon establish a kind of young Babylon—one of the daughters of Babylon, if you will—and we can have it in our midst to our hearts’ content. But what would be their feelings if they had the power? Judging from the experience of the past, their feelings would be that the Latter-day Saints should have no civil rights, no religious rights here in this land of Utah which they have sought for their own. It is true that our enemies here cannot plead like the people of Jackson, Clay and other places, that we are not the old settlers. They have not this for a plea, for the “Mormons” are the old settlers; but they have such enmity towards us that they would uproot us here, as they have five or six times before, if they had the power. “How do you know,” says one, “that these are the feelings entertained by the wicked towards this people? They profess to be very friendly, then how do you know their feelings are as you describe them?” From the fact that when this people elected one of their own number as Delegate to Congress by 15,000 votes, the man whom they voted for—giving him 105 votes, sixty of which were cast in a town where there were only twenty voters—contested his seat, and fought him month after month in the Halls of Congress, being sustained while so doing, by those who profess such friendship towards us. And what was the object of this would-be delegate? It was to deprive the “Mormons” of citizenship and of the privilege of taking up the land, by influencing the government to pass a law to that effect. This was his object, and to do all the injury in his power to this people. Who supported him? These men whom you support, Latter-day Saints, and to whom you pay your money. Merchants and others in this city gave their votes to that man after you had paid your thousands into their hands. They gave their votes for an individual who would deprive you of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution of our country. Will you still continue to support such men? Will you go down here and trade with them year after year? If you do I know what the result will be; it is plainly visible. They will get a foothold here, and if they can only get numbers sufficient, you Latter-day Saints will have no civil rights here in this Territory. If a jury is to be empanelled it will be composed of our bitter enemies. If a Latter-day Saint has to be tried before the courts, it will be before those who are ready to eat him up. If there is a delegate to be elected to Congress they will seek very diligently to get the greatest enemy to this people they can find, so that, if possible, he may succeed in getting a large army sent up here to use us up. Why should they do this? To make money; that is their object. They feel, “If we can only stir up the government and get them to send an army to Utah it will be money in our pocket. Bless you, we don’t care how much suffering it produces, or how many Latter-day Saints may be deprived of their rights; we would sell the whole of them for a dollar a head, if we could only become rich. We care nothing about them, or their rights as American citizens.” These are their feelings.

Moreover, has there not been published here year after year a scandalous paper, every number of which has teemed with lies of the blackest dye concerning us? Yet we have scarcely noticed that such a paper is in existence. Who have supported this paper? The merchants here, those whom you have been feeding and paying your money to. They are the ones who have sustained this pa– per. Do you suppose that a paper which is continually belching forth falsehoods of the blackest dye against you, your religion, and against the man who led you forth and planted you here, could be sustained here if the people outside of this church did not support it? If they support it, what is it for? That it may arouse the feelings of the enemies of the Saints throughout the States, and may, peradventure, result in the sending of an army here that they may make money out of it. That is what they hope to effect.

Now, Latter-day Saints, I have spoken plainly. I take the responsibility of what I have said on my own shoulders. If I have spoken too harshly I am willing to be corrected. I have spoken my feelings plainly, without trying to hide them or gloss them over. I say I would rather go and kill wolves in the forests and mountains, and skin them and tan their skins and wear wolfskin pantaloons, and wolfskin coats and vests, and have everything I wear the skin of beasts, than spend one dime with one outsider in the Territory of Utah. (The congregation said “amen.“) I do not know what are the feelings of my brethren on this subject, but I do know, unless there is a change among this people in regard to this matter, farewell to our homes again, farewell to our fine buildings, to our farms, and to the country which we now occupy as the old settlers; farewell to many of our friends who will fall victims to our enemies; yes, farewell to home and the comforts which now surround us, and we shall have to seek an asylum somewhere else, in these mountains or in some other part of this continent, through being driven again, if we, through our own foolishness, will nourish vipers in our midst. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, sen., delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, June 14th, 1868.

We have assembled ourselves together this afternoon, according to our usual custom, to worship the Lord our God and to partake of the Lord’s supper, in commemoration of the death and suffering of our Great Redeemer. In this manner we show forth his death until he comes. By attending to this ordinance, and all other ordinances and institutions of the Kingdom of God, we witness before God, before angels and before one another, that we are His disciples.

Jesus is the only name given under Heaven by whom salvation can come. There is no other being or name, no other person appointed, no individual that has received authority to open up the way of salvation to the human family, only our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is He in whom the Latter-day Saints believe; it is He whom we worship. We also worship the Father in His name. It is the gospel which He has revealed which we have received. It is the Holy Ghost which the Father be– stows upon the children of men, through His name, by which we are sanctified and made pure in heart.

The gospel of the Son of God is not a doctrine of late invention; but it is an old doctrine—a doctrine that was made manifest in the beginning. It has been taught in every dispensation; and all that were saved in the days of Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, or the prophets, as well as in the days of Christ, and since His day, were saved through belief in the Son of God, and in His gospel. This great plan was revealed to mankind in the early ages of the world as well as in the meridian of time.

The same gospel that was preached by the Apostles, was also preached by the ancient patriarchs and antediluvians. The same gospel that was preached in the days of the apostles, is also preached now to the Latter-day Saints. There has been a variety of dispensations of this gospel, made manifest to the human family. We have had in addition to the law of the gospel, many ordinances and institutions given to the children of men, suited to their particular circumstances, and to the conditions in which they were placed.

In the days of Moses, for instance, certain laws and ordinances were revealed from Heaven, suited to the condition of that people. But they had the gospel preached to them before the law of carnal commandments was revealed. Hence Paul says, in his epistle to the Hebrews, the gospel was preached to them as well as unto us, that is, to those who were in the wilderness with Moses. They had the gospel; but it did not profit them, says Paul, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. Hence they had to be dealt with and chastised for their unbelief and rebellion. The Lord had to afflict them, cutting many of them off and swearing in His wrath that they should not enter into His rest.

The gospel was also preached to Abraham. The same gospel by which the heathens were saved in the days of the apostles was known and preached in the days of Abraham. The same gospel that, according to the testimony of the New Testament, brought life and immortality to light was preached before the days of Abraham to Enoch, and through understanding the principles of that gospel his faith in the principles of immortality and eternal life became so strong that he was translated and taken to Heaven without seeing death.

In these latter times the Lord our God has condescended to send a dispensation of His gospel to the human family. You may enquire, what is the purpose the Lord has in view in sending the gospel in this age? Have we not here the books that contain the gospel of the Son of God, as it was preached in ancient times? Have we not here the word of the living God by which the people were saved before and after Christ came? And if they could be saved in those different dispensations in the early ages of the world and in the meridian of time, why should the Lord reveal another dispensation of this same gospel to the human family? I know that these enquiries arise, more or less, in the minds of individuals. I have often heard them in traveling among the various nations of the earth. When the gospel as revealed in the Book of Mormon, has been presented to the people, and they have been told that God has commenced another dispensation of the same gospel, they would immediately enquire “What is the use of it? We have the gospel by which the ancients were saved, revealed in the New Testament, and why do you bring us another dispensation of it?” Let me reply to this, and say a few words in relation to the object and purposes that our Father in Heaven has had in view in revealing the gospel afresh to the children of men.

If it had not been for the great apostasy after the apostles had preached the gospel, during which the last vestige of the Church of Jesus Christ was rooted out of the earth by the wickedness of the children of men; if it had not been that the priesthood was taken from the earth and the power to preach the everlasting gospel in its fullness had ceased among the nations, I do not know that there would have been any necessity whatever for another revelation of the gospel, and its gifts, blessings and powers, and the priesthood and apostleship in the latter days. But I think it can be proved beyond the power of controversy or reasonable contradiction that the gospel of the Son of God, as it was preached in the days of the apostles, has been entirely rooted out from among men. I do not mean the letter of it; we have that in part; but I mean the power to preach it and to administer its ordinances; the power to build up the church and kingdom of God; the power to speak in the name of the Lord; the power which characterized the ancient servants of the living God; the power which rested on the inspired apostles by which they could call upon God and receive revelation from heaven. That power has been rooted out from the earth. A form has been left it is true—in fact a great many forms; but what is the form without the power? What, for instance, is the use of preaching baptism for the remission of sins to the human family, if there is no person authorized and ordained from God to administer baptism to those who believe and repent? None at all. People might go forth and preach baptism from age to age and from generation to generation, but who could be baptized, or what would be the use of it, unless there were authority to administer the ordinance?

What use would be the Lord’s Supper, of which we are now partaking, if we should go and preach it all the days of our lives, provided there were no persons authorized to administer the ordinance? None at all. They could not partake of the ordinance acceptably before God. We could not receive the ordinance of baptism for the remission of sins, unless there were some person sent by new revelation to administer this ordinance to us.

Again, what use would be the ordinance of the laying on of hands in confirmation, as it was performed in the days of the ancient apostles? This is a part of the gospel, as well as faith and repentance. What use is it unless there is a man called of God to lay on hands and confirm the gift of the Holy Ghost upon the heads of baptized believers, as was done anciently?

Here is the great question between the Latter-day Saints, and the whole Christian world. It is one of the great fundamental principles at issue between us and the whole world. And it is something of the greatest importance. It is not one of the nonessentials; but it is something that concerns the whole human family, no matter whether they are religious people or irreligious; whether believers in the Bible or unbelievers, or whether they are of this, that or the other sect. This is not the question; but the great question is, has God authority among the nations to preach, to baptize, to administer the sacrament, to confirm by the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, to lay hands on the sick and command them in the name of Jesus Christ to be healed as they did in ancient days, or has He not? If He has not we may preach until doom’s day, and our preaching will not save us in the fullness of the glory of the heavenly worlds. We may baptize, and our baptisms will not be recorded in the heavens. We may administer the sacrament, but God will never receive the authority by which it is administered, and it will not be recorded in the behalf of the individuals who received it from unauthorized hands.

What testimony have we that there has been no authority for many generations, or from the days of the ancient apostles until the present century? Have we any evidence in relation to this matter? We are sorry to say that we have so much that we are obliged to believe that darkness has truly reigned over the inhabitants of the earth, and gross darkness has filled their minds. We will present a little testimony before this assembly, this afternoon, on this subject; but as it is a subject with which you are well acquainted we need not dwell upon it long.

One of the greatest evidences that can be offered that authority to preach the gospel and administer in its ordinances has ceased from the days of the apostles down to the present time, is that which is acknowledged by the whole Christian world, Catholic and Protestant, namely that the days of revelation have ceased, that the canon of Scripture is closed and full.

Now supposing we admit this, for the sake of reasoning a little while on the subject. Admit that after the apostles fell asleep there was no further revelation, that the canon of scripture was closed up at the end of the first century of the Christian era. If we admit this you see the dilemma into which the whole world is plunged. No man can receive the priesthood and authority to administer either in word, in doctrine or in ordinances without new revelation from Heaven. Shall I prove it? Let me refer you to the testimony of Paul in the epistle to the Hebrews, wherein he says that no man taketh this honor to himself, except he be called of God as was Aaron. Turn over to the Book of Exodus, if you wish to learn how Aaron was called. God, in the first place, by His own voice, and by the ministration of an angel, called His servant Moses, raised him up as a great and mighty prophet, gave him authority from the heavens to administer in the name of the Lord; and then gave him revelation and commandment to call his brother Aaron. God spoke to Moses, on that occasion, and told him that his brother Aaron should be a minister and that he should set apart Aaron unto the Priesthood, and that he should have power to go in and out before the Children of Israel; and that he should wear the breastplate, containing the Urim and Thummim, so that he could enquire in behalf of the Children of Israel, and judge between man and man.

Was Aaron called in any other way but by new revelation through the prophet Moses? He was not. Can any man receive the priesthood only by revelation? Can he receive his calling in any way wherein God does not communicate himself by new revelation from Heaven? I answer no, no. No man can assume the priesthood, and the power thereof, and officiate therein, unless he be called as this man of God was called in the days of Moses.

Admit then that the canon of scripture was closed when John the Revelator received his gospel, after he returned from the Isle of Patmos, and that when the apostles passed from the earth communication between earth and Heaven was closed, who could be their successors? No individual could hold the office or receive it unless God sent new revelation from Heaven, pointing out by name the individual upon whom the authority and calling to preach and administer in His name should rest.

If revelations were given in the second, third, fourth, fifth or any of the following centuries, where are those revelations? They are not in the Bible. Can we find them among the records of the Roman Catholics? No. What do we find there? According to the testimony of their bishops, archbishops and most learned men, they believe in no new revelation; but they take for their guide the traditions and revelations that have been handed down to them. We judge them out of their own mouths. If there have been no revelations given to the Catholic church, as they themselves testify in their writings, then there has been no Pope called to sit in the chair of St. Peter; no bishops nor archbishops to act in the places of the ancient apostles; and they are all impostors. Perhaps I ought to qualify that saying a little. There may have been some of them who were very sincere in following the traditions of their fathers, and who received the priesthood among the Catholics with all the sincerity that characterized some of the heathen priests, in receiving their priesthood from their fathers. But sincerity does not prove authority; and we have their own testimony that all authority was cut off from them, and that there was no man designated by name through revelation to occupy the position of St. Peter in Rome.

Again, come down to about three centuries ago, when the first Reformers came out and began to testify and protest against the Mother Church, and what do they exhibit? We are hunting for authority. They have invented articles of faith, and these alone are the basis of their authority. As a sample we may take the Church of England in the days of King Henry the Eighth. We may also take the Reformers on the Continent of Europe under Martin Luther, Calvin, and various other great Reformers. Men, no doubt, who were sincere and who did much good among the people. But let us hear their testimony. They declare also that the canon of scripture is full. In this respect, they follow in the tracks of the old “Mother.” They exclaim, “No revelation, no voice of God; no inspired prophet or apostle; no communications with the heavens, no ministration of angels.”

Well, then, what have you got? Oh, we have the scriptures of the Old and New Testament. But the scriptures do not call you to administer in the ordinances of the gospel. The scriptures did not name you, Martin Luther, nor you John Calvin, nor any of you Reformers, as the individuals to go forth to baptize the people and establish the kingdom of God. “Oh, but,” says one, “the scriptures tell us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” They do not tell you any such thing. That commission was given to men who lived 1,800 years ago. It did not mean Paul, Timothy, Titus or Barnabas, but it meant the eleven men, and them only.

“But,” says one, “did they not have others to assist them?” Yes, but they did not act by virtue of that commission which Jesus gave to his apostles, just before he ascended to the presence of his Father. That applied to the individuals to whom he spoke, and to no others. Paul could have had no authority to preach or baptize, until the day of his death if God had not given a new revelation to that effect. Timothy never could have acted and baptized, until the day of his death, without being ordained by the spirit of prophecy and by the laying on of hands, as we are informed in the New Testament. Barnabas never could have gone forth among the people as an apostle—for he was an apostle, though not one of the Twelve—and acted in connection with the apostle Paul, unless the Holy Ghost had said “separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work of the ministry unto which I have called them.” It required new revelation. And if no man could act even in the days of the apostles on the old commission given to the eleven, how much less can people act upon it who live 1,500 or 1,800 years after who undertake to pick it up, and say we are authorized to preach under this commission because those eleven men were authorized.

What would you think, Americans—citizens of this great Republic, if some man in Great Britain should take it into his head to come over here, to this country of ours to represent the inhabitants of Great Britain; and when you ask him for his authority, “Oh,” says he, “I have received no new commission. My government did not commission me to come to America to act as Minister Plenipotentiary.” We again ask him, by what authority then do you present yourself before this great Republic? You must, of course, pretend to some authority? “Oh, yes,” says he, “but I have no new commission; I have an old one given to one of my predecessors—one given to a man dead and gone. I happened to have access to his writings and papers, and finding his commission I put it into my pocket and came here to act as Minister.”

Now would you not think he had left his country because he was insane? Would you acknowledge his authority? No. Would God acknowledge the authority of a man who assumed to act under an old commission given to people who have laid in their graves some eighteen centuries? No. If we act in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in administering the great and sacred ordinance of baptism, we must be commissioned by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost to do this work, or else it would be blasphemy and wickedness in the extreme, not only in those who administer, but in those who suffer themselves to be deceived and receive the ordinance from their hands.

It is a testimony then to us when both the Catholics, and the Protestants in all the various sects, rise up and tell us that the canon of scripture is full and closed, and when they present us with their articles of faith, and say here are sixty-six books in the Old and New Testaments, and you must not receive revelation from God only as it is contained in these sixty-six books. There has been no new revelation since, no new commission, no new authority, no voice of angels, no voice of God, no inspiration, no calling by new revelation; but we act only upon the old commission. When they tell us this, if we are reflecting people, we find ourselves totally unprepared to receive the gospel at their hands.

As to the gospel being in the world, the letter of it is here, to be sure; but where is the authority to administer? Where is there a man, among the Catholics or Protestants, among Christians, or Pagans, or Mahommedans, or elsewhere, who could have ministered the gospel to any of our forefathers who lived before the present century? Nowhere could you or I have received the gospel, forty years ago, if we had then lived? We could have read the letter of it; we could have read what God did when He had authority upon the earth. But reading a thing is entirely different from receiving it. Reading about new revelation, prophecies and ministrations of angels is one thing, but the actually receiving them is entirely another thing. You can read these things and never enter the Kingdom of God; but if you receive them, and continue faithful, you have a testimony, a witness within yourselves that you are accepted of the Lord our God. All other hopes are vain. It is in vain for us to look for all the blessings of the gospel, when there is no priesthood or authority among the children of men. Moreover, what were the blessings that followed the administration of the Holy Spirit? That is a part of the gospel just as much as faith and repentance. The servants of God were entrusted not only with the ministration of the word and the outward ordinances, but Paul says “God has made us able ministers of His spirit.” There was something that had power in it, when the authority was on the earth. It gave power to administer the letter and the outward ordinances; and it also gave power to administer the Spirit according to the promise that God had made. Hence we find, that when the people at Samaria were baptized, through the preaching of Philip, they did not then receive the Holy Ghost. But when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that the Samaritans had received the letter of the word, through Philip, they sent Peter and John; and when they came down and prayed for them, and laid their hands upon them, they received the Holy Ghost.

Here then is an instance of the ministration of the Spirit as well as of the water. Here was a power that attended the ancient apostles. They had authority given to them, from on High to administer in this higher ordinance wherein the Spirit of God was shed forth abundantly in the hearts of the children of men.

But we do not wish to dwell on the subject of this great apostasy and the loss of authority of which we have been speaking. We desire to dwell upon a more pleasing subject, namely, the restoration of authority and power to minister the word, and the ordinances, and the Spirit of the gospel, to the children of men.

“Has such authority been restored” inquires one? Yes; if it has not, neither you nor I can ever obey the gospel. We may hear it preached, but we never can obey its ordinances, without such restoration. The great question is, “How was it restored?” The Latter-day Saints are ready to answer this question.

As God, from time to time, since the beginning, gave His authority to men, in different dispensations, so He has again, in the last dispensation, sent His angel from Heaven. Does this stumble you, that God has sent a messenger from the courts of glory, down to our earth? It is something contrary to the traditions of the Christian world. It is something that does not agree with the notions of our forefathers for many generations. It does not stumble this congregation; they would not be sitting on these seats today if they had not believed this with all their hearts. An angel has been sent. What for? In the first place to reveal the Book of Mormon, containing the testimony of the fullness of the gospel in all its plainness, as it was revealed here on this continent. By whom? By our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. When? Soon after His resurrection from the dead. Soon after He had finished His ministry in the land of Jerusalem, He appeared on this great Western Hemisphere, peopled by numerous nations—the remnants of the House of Israel, of whom our American Indians are the descendants. They saw Jesus as well as the Jews at Jerusalem. They beheld the wounds in His hands, in His feet, and in His side. They saw Him descend clothed in a white robe; they saw Him come down into the midst of their assemblies, in the northern portion of what we call South America. They heard Him open His mouth and teach the multitude assembled on that occasion. They gathered themselves together day after day as far as they could to hear Him teach.

They felt His power as well as the people on the Eastern Continent. The glorious principles of the gospel were taught to them as well as to the Jews at Jerusalem. They had the privilege of being immersed in water for the remission of their sins, and having hands laid upon them for the outpouring of the Holy Ghost as well as their brethren in the distant land of Jerusalem. They heard His voice proclaiming the gospel which he had introduced for the salvation of the children of men, and also explaining the scriptures and prophecies and unfolding all things that should happen even down to the end of time. They wrote His teachings as did Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. The teachings and writings of the disciples and apostles that were called on this American continent were recorded, as well as his sayings on the land of Asia. They had the privilege therefore of knowing about the plan of salvation as well as the people of what we term the Old World. That testimony has been brought to us. How? By the ministration of an holy angel of God.

But even then, we could not obey this gospel. The revealing and trans– lating of this book by inspiration did not give authority to Joseph Smith to baptize, to lay on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, or to administer the Lord’s Supper. No, he only did the work given him to do—reveal the record of the gospel as taught among the Israelites of the American continent. Could the Church arise or anybody be baptized from that? No; it required still further authority. Authority to translate is one thing, authority to baptize is another. Authority to reveal the Book of Mormon is one thing; authority to build up the Church and Kingdom of God is another. But God did afterwards give the authority to baptize and build up His Church. How? By sending angels from Heaven who, themselves, had the power to ordain persons to be Apostles. An individual who does this must hold the Apostleship himself; no other being would have authority. Whom did the Lord send to restore the Apostleship again to earth, and to confer it on Joseph Smith? No less personages than Peter, James and John, who were with Jesus when he was transfigured in the mount, who then heard the voice of the Father. These persons who held the keys of the Kingdom of God, and had power to administer its ordinances, laid their hands on this great modern Prophet that he might be filled with the Holy Ghost.

Again, did this Church arise according to the wisdom, power and understanding of men? No; God gave commandment in relation to it, and pointed out the day on which it was to be organized. And according to this commandment and revelation it was organized with six members on the 6th of April, 1830.

Here is the great difference between us and the religious world. And, how immense is the difference! If what we have been speaking of, this afternoon, be true, you behold the condition of the whole human family in regard to the ordinances of the gospel. You see that without authority they cannot embrace the gospel. If it be not true then all these Latter-day Saints are deceived, and we, like all the rest of the world, are without authority and power. But if it be true, not only you and I and the people of this Territory are concerned, but every man and woman in the world are equally so. If God has, indeed, sent His holy angel and conferred the Apostleship, and power and authority to administer among the inhabitants of the earth, first to the Gentiles, and afterwards to the scattered remnants of Israel, who can be saved without obeying these institutions of Heaven?

Was anyone, either Jew or Gentile, saved anciently who rejected the preaching of the Apostles? Not one. It mattered not how righteous they might have been, even if they had received the ministrations of angels, like good old Cornelius, they could not be saved without obeying the gospel. You know Cornelius was so righteous, and had given so many alms to the poor, that they had ascended to God as a memorial in his favor. Yet with all this the Lord had to send an angel to tell him that he was not yet in the right way. This angel came to Cornelius and told him to send for Simon whose surname was Peter, and he should tell him how to be saved. Cornelius might have reasoned thus: “Am I not righteous enough to be saved without sending for Peter? Have not my alms come up before the Lord as a memorial? And has He not sent to me an holy angel from Heaven to tell me that my prayers have ascended up to Heaven before Him? And is there any necessity for me to send for a man to tell me whereby I may be saved?” “Yes,” said the angel, “he shall tell you.” As much as to say, you cannot be saved with all your prayers and alms, unless you have a properly authorized servant of God, to tell you how to be saved, and to administer the ordinances of salvation to you.

When Jesus gave the commission to his apostles in ancient days he told them to preach the gospel to all the world—to every person under the whole heaven, and said, “he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned.” But is not this very severe? Is there any charity in this expression? Must all be condemned who do not bow to this order? Are there not good sects among the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians, and good people of all sects and parties, just men whose prayers continually ascend before God? How is it that none of them can be saved without obeying this gospel which these eleven men were commissioned to teach? That was the decree. It mattered not how much righteousness they had, they all had to bow to that one system, that one ordinance, that one church, and be united heart and hand in the building up of that kingdom, and outside of that there was no salvation.

Now, if it be true, as I said, in the first place, that God has sent His angels and that He has conferred the apostleship, and given authority to administer in His name; if this be true is there a man or woman, Jew or Gentile, Mahommedan or Pagan, rich or poor, among the priests or people that can be saved without receiving the Book of Mormon and the authority that God has established? No, not one, if they have had the opportunity of hearing and receiving it. If it be not true, all mankind should reject it. Do you not see the impor– tance of it? It is a message that goes forth, like the ancient one—with authority and power. The same declaration is given in these days, as was given then. A new revelation has been given to us, with new authority, similar to what was given to the apostles in days of old.

I will read a little in relation to this authority, in a revelation given in the early rise of this church to the apostles, and the authorities of this church who had been called by revelation from the Lord Jesus Christ. “Therefore, go ye into all the world, and whatsoever place ye cannot go into ye shall send, that the testimony may go from you into all the world unto every creature. And as I said unto mine apostles, even so I say unto you, for you are mine apostles, even God’s high priests. Ye are they whom my Father hath given me; ye are my friends; therefore as I said unto mine apostles I say unto you again, that every soul who believeth on your words and is baptized by water for the remission of sins shall receive the Holy Ghost, and these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name they shall do many wonderful works; in my name they shall cast out devils; in my name they shall heal the sick; in my name they shall open the eyes of the blind, and unstop the ears of the deaf; and the tongue of the dumb shall speak; and if any man shall administer poison unto them it shall not hurt them; and the poison of a serpent shall not have power to harm them.” Again he says, and notice how it agrees with the ancient commission, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, they who believe not on your words and are not baptized in water in my name, for the remission of their sins, that they may receive the Holy Ghost, shall be damned and shall not come into my Father’s kingdom where my Father and I are, and this revelation unto you and commandment is in force from this very hour upon all the world, and the gospel is unto all who have not received it.”

I have read this, in order that the similarity of the two commissions might be apparent to you. We have a commission to preach the gospel to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people; to call upon Gentiles and Jews, ministers and religious people, and professors of all denominations, as well as unbelievers, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, to repent of their sins, to be baptized, by those holding authority, for the remission of their sins, that they may be filled with the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. To contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints, that they may have power with God, as promised to every soul that believes. “And,” says the Book of Mormon, “if there be one soul among you that doeth good he shall work by the gifts and powers of God, and woe be to them that deny these gifts and powers, for they shall die in their sins, and they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God.” Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Oct. 7, 1867.

Never having had the opportunity of speaking to so large a congregation as the present, or at least in so large a house as the one which we are now assembled, I do not know whether I shall be able to adapt my voice so as to make the congregation hear me. I know the object of coming to meeting and preaching is to hear and to be edified and instructed more perfectly in the things pertaining to God and to godliness, and in our duties before the Lord. When I look upon this large tabernacle, which has been erected here in these high regions of our globe, I am forcibly reminded of the sayings of two of the ancient prophets, Isaiah and Micah, both of whom have spoken of an event that was to take place in the latter days. I will quote their sayings, for the language of both is almost identical. “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the House of the Lord shall be established in the tops of the mountains.” I have often wondered when I have read this portion of Scripture, what was meant by the mountain of the house of the Lord being erected, or established, in the tops of the mountains. The mountain of the house of the Lord is something, it seems, that God himself would establish in the mountains. When I entered this Territory in August last, on my return from my last mission, I beheld from the mouth of Parley’s Canyon the top of this building very prominent. It seemed to rear itself up above the surrounding buildings, and it was easily to be seen. It looked very much like an artificial mountain erected here, or like some of those mounds that we see down on the Missouri River, that were made by the ancient inhabitants of our country, only it is much larger and higher than some of them. Whether this is really what the prophet in ancient days meant, it is not for me to say, I only say that the shape of this building reminds me, or suggests to me what was prophesied anciently; but whether or not it is the fulfillment of that prophecy I do not know.

I will take this opportunity to express my gratitude and feelings of thanksgiving to the Almighty, that he has enabled this people to erect unto him so large a building in which they can assemble to worship his great and holy name. The Lord, in ancient days, when he constructed temples and tabernacles, did honor them by his presence. No doubt on some occasions his presence was made more manifest than on others. Oftentimes we read that the power and the glory of God, as manifested in his tabernacles and temples were so conspicuous that the people could behold them with their natural eyes. I do not say that this was the case under all circumstances, and in all houses that were built unto the name of the Lord. Many temples and houses were built on the American continent by the remnant of the House of Israel, to whom this land was given. It is not recorded whether the Lord manifested himself in all these houses or not; but it is recorded that at the temple which was built in the land Bountiful, in the northern part of South America, the Son of God, himself, did show forth his power and his glory to a certain congregation assembled in and around about the temple. Jesus, after his resurrection from the dead, was sent by his Father from the heavens to the American continent, to a congregation of two thousand and five hundred souls, men, women and children, who where assembled together for the purpose of worshipping God the Father in the name of Jesus. Consequently God did respect this temple built on the American continent, as well as the great temple built by Solomon in the days of old. When Solomon had built the temple, he spread forth his hands to the heavens, and prayed to the Father, in the presence of the congregation of Israel that was assembled, and the spirit of the Lord was poured out in such a wonderful manner that the people, through their faith, beheld the power and the glory of God as they were manifested in that temple. By this the people knew that God respected his own house. So it was in the days of Moses. When they journeyed in the wilderness, God commanded the Children of Israel to build a tabernacle. He gave them a pattern thereof. In that tabernacle the Lord showed forth his power among Israel. It became visible not only on the inside, but on the outside the glory of God was made manifest and rested upon it. By this the Children of Israel knew that God was near unto them. They not only believed, but the testimony manifested before their eyes gave them a knowledge that God was in the midst of their camp; although through their wickedness, unbelief, and darkness of mind God withdrew his immediate presence from the midst of the congregation, and Moses only was permitted to see the Lord and talk to him face to face, yet the display of God’s power and glory was so great that the Children of Israel knew that God was near them.

The question may arise, Will there be a time again when the glory of the Lord will be manifestly visible to and his voice heard by his people? I answer, yes. God has promised this in the last days. There is no doubt, as was said yesterday by Brother Kimball, that heavenly messengers hover around the congregation of the Saints here assembled. I have no doubt of this in my own mind, though I have not seen them and you may not have seen them; yet that God who has seen your labors and diligence in building a house to his name, has no doubt sent heavenly messengers to hover around us, to bluff off the powers of darkness, that seek to darken the minds of the people, and to close their hearts against understanding. The time will come when the faith of this people, the pure in heart, will be sufficiently great that when they build a house to the name of the Lord, and do not suffer any unclean thing to enter therein, that the Lord will come and grace it by his presence, as well as by the presence of his angels. That will be the time when the pure in heart, who enter into the house of God, will behold his face. O! what a grand, glorious, happy privilege that will be to the sons and daughters of the Most High, to behold the face of him who created them, the Father of their spirits, who created them before the foundation of the world. How great and glorious a privilege for the sons and daughters of God who are now shut out from his presence! For this cause the people of God are commanded at all times to build a house to his name, that he may reveal those ordinances devised by him for the salvation of the children before the world was laid.

I know there are some people who do not believe God has a face like unto man, or in other words that we are in his image and likeness. There has been a great variety of views among the inhabitants of our globe in regard to the being or beings whom they have worshipped and called God. Some have believed that he was an immaterial being. Some have believed that he had no properties, perfection or qualities in common with any other substance in nature; that he was entirely separated from all material nature. This seems to be the view of the great mass of the Christian world at the present day. Some two hundred millions of the inhabitants of our globe consider that God is something altogether indefinable, incomprehensible, a person, and yet has no parts; consisting of three persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and yet no part of these persons. That is a horrible idea in my mind. My mind is so constructed that, with all my reading and meditation, I never could conceive of a being of that description, and yet it is incorporated in the articles of the Church of England, also in the Methodist discipline, and is in accordance with the views of almost all the Christian world at the present day. “God consists,” say they in their creeds, “of three persons without body, parts or passions.” I do not wish to dwell upon this long; it is so inconsistent, so very absurd, so contrary to all intelligence, reason and revelation that I am willing to throw it by without contemplating it for any length of time. I merely mention it to call to your mind the inconsistencies of the religious world who profess Christianity. One of these persons, called the Son, without body and without parts, was actually crucified, died and was buried in a tomb, and the third day he rose again, and with his body ascended into heaven, when he did not possess a body. If anybody can believe such nonsense, they are perfectly welcome to it, only keep it away from me. I want nothing to do with it. I never expect to worship such a being here on earth or throughout all the future ages of eternity. I have no reverence whatever for such a being, for I do not believe that such a one ever existed, only in the hallucinations of disordered minds.

Perhaps the strangers who are present, if any there be, may be led to inquire what kind of a being do the Latter-day Saints worship? Let me reply according to my understanding. I believe that God—I mean God the Father is a material personal being; that he has a body and a spirit united together; that his spirit within his body is material; that he is a personage just as much as every man in this congregation is a personage; and let me go still further and say that he is a personage of flesh and of bones. Perhaps that may shock the ideas of some of the outsiders and they may think that to get over their immaterial god, without body or parts, we have gone to the other extreme. Well, whether it is to the other extreme or not, I wish to state to you my views, and I think they correspond with the views of the servants of God.

God is a being, then, who has a tabernacle of flesh and bones in which his spirit dwells; and this flesh, bones and spirit are material. Strangers may be anxious to know something more about this personal being whom we call God the Father. We are told that in the beginning man was created in the image of God, and we are also told that Jesus, the Son of God, was the express image of His Father. The doctrine that man, in his form and shape is in the image of God, may be or may seem something new and strange to those who are not acquainted with the principles in this church. But why should not men resemble God is the question, seeing that we are his offspring? Would you expect that sons and daughters of this world would be like a horse or like the fowls of the air or the fish of the sea? Or would you expect them to resemble their parents, and be in their image and likeness? Do we not see in the animal creation—of which the human species is said to be a part—a likeness between the parent and the offspring, certainly we do. If then this law prevails among all animated beings here on the earth, why should we imagine God to be entirely distinct and different from his own sons and daughters? Why not believe that there is a resemblance between them and him. When we look at our fellow man we behold him erect in the form of God. To be sure there may be many deformities among men and women, produced in many instances, perhaps, by wickedness, disease and by accident; but in the general outline there is resemblance among all the human species, and there should be in as much as their Father and God is indeed their Father, as any in this congregation are the literal fathers of their children. We, who compose this congregation, are all one family, and only a very small portion of the family of our Father and God. But when did he beget us? I answer before this world was made; not our flesh and bones, but that being called man that was created in the image and likeness of God and who dwells in his mortal tabernacle. That being is the offspring of God; we were all begotten by him before this world was made. We then dwelt in his presence and could behold his face as sons and fathers here on earth can behold each other. We then partook, in a measure, of his glory, and were acquainted with the glory and power of his kingdom. We were present with him in the grand and magnificent work of creation, and we saw and rejoiced in his handiwork. We sang praises in the presence of our Father and God; before we had tabernacles of flesh and bones. We then assembled ourselves together as we do here on the earth; we then accompanied our Father and God and his Son Jesus Christ, on the grand and glorious mission of the formation of the world we now inhabit. Did we know anything about the object for which this world was created? Yes, we knew that it was created expressly for us, and we sang and rejoiced over it as much as the people of God now rejoice, when they erect a temple or tabernacle to his name. When you erect a tabernacle to the Most High, you expect to enter at times, and be feasted with the words of eternal life, and to partake of the blessings of God. So it was in regard to the creation of this world. We were there and I think all this generation among all nations, kindreds, tongues and people were present on that occasion. Shall I limit it to this generation? No; I believe all the sons and daughters of God who had proved themselves faithful were assembled on that occasion. I do not include in this number the one-third part of the family that fell, but the two-thirds who kept the law of their first estate who were really and truly accounted the sons and daughters of God, the thousands and millions who inhabit this globe besides the generations of the past and all future generations. Think of this and try to conceive in your heart the magnitude of the great army of the sons and daughters of God assembled at the time the foundations of this world were laid.

The Lord put a very curious question to the old patriarch, Job, on a certain occasion. Job had been praising up the works of God, and so far as his narrow mind would permit him, he tried to magnify the greatness of his power; but, by putting a few questions to Job the Lord showed to him that his wisdom and knowledge were but foolishness in the sight of his creator. Said the Lord,”Where were you, Job, when I laid the foundation of the earth, and the cornerstones thereof? Where were you, Job, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” I do not know that Job understood the pre-existence of man, it might not have been revealed to him; at any rate he left the Lord to answer the question on the subject, knowing that he would give information on the matter that he, Job, could not give. If Job had been a sectarian, how easily he could have answered this question! “Why, Lord,” Job could have said, “I did not exist then, and why do you ask me such a question?” But Job very well understood that there must be something in the pre-existence of man, or the Lord would never have put such a question to him. The very question itself implied the pre-existence of Job at the time the foundations of the earth were laid, and it also implied a knowledge on the part of all the sons of God of the objects of the creations of this world; for if they had had no such knowledge, why should they have joined together in singing the songs of heaven on account of it? Well, then, we have come to the point, namely, that we did exist in the image and likeness of God before the foundations of the world were laid, and this is what is meant when the Lord says to his only begotten Son on the sixth day of creation, “Let us make man in our image and in our likeness, and give him dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowls of the air, the beasts of the earth, and over all the earth to subdue it,” and so forth. So God created man, male and female. He did not tell us all the particulars of the creation—that we were born male and female in the spirit world, and so on, but yet there are many sayings which indicate that such was the fact. For instance, in the books of Moses and in the books of the New Testament we read that God is the Father of all our spirits, that we were begotten sons and daughters unto God. The vision given in 1832 to our Prophet, Joseph Smith, shows this matter more clearly. Besides showing the vast number of worlds that the Lord had created, the voice of the Lord, in that vision, declares that all the inhabitants of all those worlds were begotten sons and daughters unto God. The Book of “Mormon” bears testimony to the same great doctrine. You who are familiar with that book will recollect reading in the book of Ether how that the brother of Jared fell to the earth with fear when he saw the finger of the Lord, after the veil fell from his natural eyes. And the Lord spoke to him, saying, “Why hast thou fallen?” Then the brother of Jared answered, “I saw the finger of the Lord, and I knew not that the Lord had flesh and bones.” It did resemble flesh and bone, but he, doubtless, thought it was so in reality, whereas it was the body of his Spirit. Then said the Lord, “I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people; I am Jesus Christ; I am the Father and the Son, and the body which thou now beholdest is the body of my spirit. Seest thou not that thou art created after the body of my spirit, and all men,” says Jesus to the brother of Jared, “have I created in the beginning after the image of the body of my spirit.” This, I believe, is the only passage in the Book of “Mormon” that directly teaches the pre-existence of man.

Well, that body—the body of the Lord—that the brother of Jared saw, was a personal body. It had fingers, a face, eyes, arms, hands, and all the various parts which the human body has, so much so that he thought, it was really flesh and bones, until he was corrected and found that it was the spirit of Jesus, that same spirit, says Jesus, which, in the meridian of time, should come and take a body, and die for the sins of the world. These beings, who, in the beginning, were created after the image of the spirit of Jesus, had a probation; they had law; they had intelligence. It was called their first estate. They were agents there just as much as you and I are here. They could obey the law that was given to them, or they could disobey that law. I have already alluded to a third part of the great family, who did not keep their first estate. What became of them? They were thrust down, and thus came the devil and his angels. Jude says they were reserved in chains of darkness, until the judgment at the great day. That was their doom; their transgressions were so great—sinning against God the Father, whom they could behold, and against the person of his Son, whom they could also see—disobeying the most sacred of all laws—seeking to dethrone the Almighty, and to take the power from that Being who had begotten them, into their own hands. For this they were thrust down, and were called Perdition, and the heavens wept over them. I do not know how faithful the remainder of the spirits were; that is not for me to say. I do not know whether they transgressed any of the laws of God, or not in their first estate. If they did, one thing I do know, and that is, that they understand about Jesus and his atonement; for he was as a Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world, and inasmuch as he suffered in spirit as well as in body, I do not know but his sufferings in spirit would redeem them in their first estate as well as us who sin here in the body. I do not pretend to say that such was the case. Suffice to say, that the plan of redemption was known by them, and suffice it to say again, that they were faithful enough to retain their position in their first estate, and to have the privilege of coming forth in this world, and taking upon themselves tabernacles, or bodies, and having a second estate. We also read that all who come into this world were innocent. That shows that they never had sinned, or if they had, that they had been forgiven and made innocent. Which way it was I do not know. If they had sinned and were all made innocent through the blood of the atonement, and through the sufferings of Jesus in the spirit, as well as in the flesh, that would prepare them to come into this world without having any stain upon them. But if they never transgressed the law, never went beyond its bounds, or limits, they would be sanctified, purified, perfected, saved and be innocent by keeping the law. But let us come down a little further. When we came forth into this world, and took upon ourselves bodies of flesh, they were fallen bodies—subject to pain, sickness, sorrow, mourning, trials, and finally death, or dissolution. This death that came upon the bodies of the children of men, was brought to pass by the transgression of one man and woman, that is, by our first parents; as it is written, “By the transgression of one sin entered the world, and death by sin.” It matters not whether it is the little infant that dandles on the knee that has never sinned, or the youth, the middle-aged or the old, all have to feel this great penalty that has been inflicted upon all the posterity of Adam by reason of his transgression.

Now, there is a question that has often been asked of me by the Latter-day Saints, and by those outside of this Church—“Why is it that infants, who have never sinned, should die? Why should they be subject to death because their father some six thousand years ago sinned and transgressed?” I answer this by asking you a question, Why is it that children, oftentimes to the third, fourth and fifth generation, suffer from lingering diseases here in this life, because their forefathers were licentious, and broke the laws of life and happiness? Why, it is hereditary, is it not? Is it just that they should suffer, because their parents or some of their progenitors have sinned? No, it is hereditary. Why, then, may not all the inhabitants of the world, whether in their infancy or not, inherit death as well as these children who suffer through diseases entailed upon them by their forefathers? Not as a matter of justice particularly, but something that comes upon them in consequence of the fall of man. It is handed down among them. Now, that would be a very unpleasant condition if they were always to remain in that state. They are plunged into slavery, as it were, by one man; hence the Redeemer steps forth and rescues them from that slavery. When I say rescues them, I do not say that he does it at once, before they have had a chance to know the difference between good and evil, between the bitter and the sweet, to contrast between happiness and misery. It is wisdom that they should suffer, even should it be from hereditary disease, that they may gain experience. But I will tell you what he rescues them from, by his atoning blood. He breaks the bands of death and rescues them from the power of the grave, which, but for that, would have held the infant as well as the middle-aged in their power eternally. There is such a thing as a father, through his foolishness, plunging not only himself but all his children into a slavery from which he cannot redeem himself or them, so far as their bodies are concerned; but with Adam’s children this was the case with both their bodies and spirits, for the Book of “Mormon” says that all mankind, through Adam’s transgression, became subject not only to a temporal death—the separation of the body and spirit, but also to a spiritual death, eternal in its nature. If there were no atonement—no sufferings and death of our Redeemer—no infinite atonement to rescue men from the grave, their spirits, in consequence of the slavery entailed upon them by their first parents, could not have been rescued from eternal death. Could they have delivered themselves? No. They were in captivity—slavery—and their master, the devil, was there to bind them in that slavery. Could they turn the key of the prison doors and run back again? No! Could they say to the grave, Yield up my body and let me go again into the presence of my Father and God? No; there were potent enemies who had endless power over them had it not been for the atonement.

We are taught in the revelations of God that Jesus suffered the pain of all men. You will find it in the teachings of Jacob, the brother of Nephi, in the Second Book of Nephi. “He suffered the pains of all men, women and children,” says Jacob. What was this great suffering for? That the resurrection might come unto all men, women and children; that Jesus might have power to say to the grave “restore those captives you have taken, behold I have redeemed all whose bodies slumber in the grave. I have power to bring them forth by virtue of the atonement I have made.”

Could man have redeemed himself? Could one man have shed his blood for another, and said to the grave give up your dead? No. Why not? Because all were fallen; all were under the dominion and power of Satan. All were spiritually dead—dead to things pertaining to righteousness. It was universal, eternal death. A being greater than man was required to redeem him, hence Jacob says, in the passage to which I have already referred, in relation to the atonement, “that it must be infinite.” Wherein was the Son of God infinite? In the first place, he was begotten different from you and me. We were begotten by a mortal father, but Jesus was begotten by an Immortal Being, his Father and God. If then his body was begotten by that Being, do you not see that his body in that respect differed from ours? It is true that he inherited the same as we do so far as his mother was concerned, but on the part of the Father he was superior. Hence, being begotten by an Infinite Being, he could do that which no other man could do—redeem from spiritual death and the captivity of Satan. Hence it is said that “through Jesus came life and light into the world.” If it had not been for Jesus, darkness would have reigned eternally over this creation.

Talk about works of righteousness redeeming us without the atonement! Why the thing is preposterous in the highest degree. Why? Because we were spiritually dead, and can a person who is dead work righteousness? Can a person who is dead to everything good, holy, upright and Godlike, who is in captivity to Satan, work righteousness? Could a feast of salvation be prepared for him in that dead state, unless there was some redemption or atonement made to bring life to the world to impart to the human family? Light and life have come upon all men. Jesus is that light and life; He is the light and life of all things; and by reason of that light and life which he has purchased for us by his own blood, you and I have the privilege of working righteousness, which we never would have had without the atonement. We could not have done anything acceptable in the sight of God, without his atoning blood. That is the very foundation of the redemption of the children of men; without it, this would have been a lost and fallen creation, and not one could have been saved.

But let us pass on a little further. You recollect in the former part of my remarks, I was speaking about the personality of God. Now let us come along to the plan of redemption, and see how it is that we are exalted and brought back into the presence of God, and become as it were, gods, then we can form some idea concerning our Father and God. We are instructed, and we believe, that all of us who believe in Jesus Christ, in his sufferings and death, and receive the benefit of his atonement, will, if we remain faithful, be exalted into the presence of that being who is our Father, and that we will be made like unto him, and be crowned with glory, and shall have the privilege of sitting down with the Son upon his throne, as he has overcome, and has sat down with his Father upon his throne, and that we will become one with him, as he is one with the Father. We believe we will be perfected, purified and cleansed in him, and made not only the sons of God, but grow up unto him in all things, that we may become Gods like unto our Father who begat us.

This is consistent with analogy. Analogy shows that sons here upon the earth, grow up and become like their parents. Why then should we set a barrier between the sons of God, who are redeemed through the atonement, and their restoration to the mansions where they formerly dwelt? Why should we erect obstacles, and set a barrier so that we cannot become like him? Analogy would say at once that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Analogy would say that when he shall redeem our bodies from the grave, that he will fashion them after his own glorious body, and clothe them with power and glory, even as He is clothed with glory and power, in the presence of his Father and our Father and God.

But says one, if you adopt that sentiment, then your people believe in a plurality of gods, and we have all been taught in the Christian world that there is but one personal God, or rather three persons in the Trinity—the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Well, these three are called one, are they not? Yes, they are called one. Jesus prays that all his disciples may be made one, as he and the Father are one. If ever that prayer is answered, then, in one sense of the word, there would only be one God, but, in another sense of the word, there would not only be three, but a great many personal beings called gods. Let us for a few moments refer to that glorious saying in the revelations of St. John. In the visions of eternity that were shown to John, he beheld things that were to take place in future generations. Among other things that were shown to him, were the one hundred and forty-four thousand, standing on Mount Zion, who had been redeemed from among men. Who were they? Let us look at the inscription that John says was written on their foreheads. That will tell us that the name of their Father was written there. What was his name? God, translated into the English language. Ahman in the pure language. The Father’s name John saw inscribed on the foreheads of the hundred and forty-four thousand who were singing the new song before the Lord. What would you think if you were to have the future opened to you as John had, and could see these men with the word God, inscribed in bright and shining characters upon each of their foreheads? Would you think that God was making fun of them by putting such an inscription there? Would you suppose the inscription was a mere form without any meaning? No: every man permitted to see these things would at once say, “they are gods having been redeemed, and made like their Father.” This is what we believe. Then, when we come to personality, we not only believe in our personal Father, in His Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost, as personages, but we also believe that in the eternity of eternities, in the heaven of heavens there will be innumerable millions of persons who will occupy that exalted station—each one being a personal god, as much so as the God of this creation—the Father of our spirits is.

If time permitted, we might bring up the revelations of heaven, given in these days as well as anciently, in regard to the representations which God has given of Himself, not only representing himself by his person, but also by his attributes. But this is a subject upon which we do not feel to dwell at this time. Suffice it to say, that God has said that he is light and truth; that he is a spirit: that he dwells in tabernacles and temples, and so forth. I do not know, but that in my teachings in years past, where teaching upon these two distinct subjects, I may have left an impression upon the minds of the people that I never intended to convey in reference to the qualities, perfections, glories and attributes of these personages, for attributes always do pertain to substances, you cannot separate one from the other. Attribute cannot exist without substance; everywhere it shows its bearing and relation to substance and person, and if in any of my preaching or teachings I have ever conveyed the impression that attributes could exist separate and apart from substances I never intended to do so. I do not know that I have ever declared any such in my writings. I have said that God is love, and that he is truth because the revelations say so. I have said that he oftentimes represents himself by his attributes. The same as when he says I am in you; but he does not mean that his person, his flesh and bones are in us. When Jesus says I am in the Father, he does not mean that his person is in the Father. What does he mean? He means that the same attributes that dwell in his own person also dwell in the person of the other. I think I have heard this doctrine taught from the commencement, by the authorities of this Church, and I think it is taught, more or less, now, almost every Sabbath day. We are exhorted to develop and perfect those attributes of God that dwell within us in embryo, that we may more and more approximate to that high state of perfection that exists in the Father and the Son.

Attributes belong, in all cases, in this and all other worlds, to personages and substances, and without personages and substances, they cannot exist.

In the “Kingdom of God,” published in October, 1848, I have set forth the personality of the Father and the Son, and the glorious attributes that pertain to each. And again in many of my writings, to which I might refer, and could perhaps give the page, I have taught the same thing, and my views today concerning this matter are just the same as they were then, and then the same as they are now; only I think, by searching more fully, I have progressed and obtained some further light and information more than I had twenty or twenty-five years ago. I do not know, that, in my remarks this morning, concerning the atonement, and the personalities and glorious attributes of God, I have varied in my views from those of the rest of the authorities of the Church. If I have I hope they will correct me and tell me wherein I am wrong, for it is my desire, and ever has been, to go in accordance with the revelations of heaven, to abide in the word of God, and to have that word abide in me.

We are taught that the words of truth have power. The word of God we are commanded to live by. In one of the revelations we are taught and commanded that we shall live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, for says the revelation “the word of God is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light, and whatsoever is light is spirit, even the spirit of Jesus Christ, and the spirit gives light to every man that comes into the world, and the spirit directs every man through the world who will hearken to it; and he that hearkens to the voice of the spirit comes to God, even the Father, and he teaches him of the covenant which he has renewed and confirmed upon you for your sakes, and not for your sakes only, but for the sake of the whole world.”

Now, I want to abide in that. If the word of the Lord is truth, and whatever is truth is light, and whatever is light is spirit, I want to embrace it, and hold fast to it. Again, he says, when giving a revelation to the servants of God: “That which you hear is the voice of one crying in the wilderness—in the wilderness, because you cannot see him—my voice, because my voice is Spirit, and my Spirit is truth, and truth abides forever and has no end.” I desire to abide in it forever and ever. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday, August 11th, 1867.

I have long looked forward with joyful anticipations to the time, when I should again meet with the people of God in these mountains, and have the privilege of standing before them. I feel very thankful to my Father in heaven for this great privilege. I have been absent from this city and place over three years, and have performed one of the longest missions of my life. I feel thankful to God that you gave me this privilege, and that I have had the opportunity of adding one more lengthy mission to the long catalogue of missions which I have taken abroad among the nations. It is a great satisfaction to me to have the privilege of being numbered with this people, and to have my name enrolled among those who profess to be Latter-day Saints. With them is safety; with them are joy, peace, and satisfaction. And I feel to say, as one said in old times—that with this people I desire to live, and, if it is necessary to die, I desire to have the privilege of dying with them. But I do not know whether it will be necessary for all of us to die, perhaps there may be some who will escape this curse in some measure, and who may meet with a change equivalent to that of death.

I have been abroad for the purpose of doing good, that was the only object I had in view in leaving this Territory three years ago last spring. Whether I have done much good or not remains for the day of judgment to reveal; it is not altogether for me to judge in relation to this matter. We are well assured that our Father, who reigns in yonder heavens, keeps a journal, or, in other words, a record—a great record in which He records the doings of the children of men. We know, from a certain declaration of Jesus in the Book of Mormon, concerning the records of heaven, that the acts and doings of all men are recorded by the Father in that book, and the time is fast hastening when I, as an individual, and all others, must be brought before the Judge of all the earth, and our acts and doings here, in this short space of time appointed to us as a probation, will be read before us, or if not read they will be perfectly remembered by us and by those who sit in judgment, so that a righteous judgment will be rendered on our heads, and we will receive the reward of our doings, whether they be good or evil. I have enjoyed myself remarkably well on this mission. I hope that some good has been done, and that the Lord will remember the good that I have intended to do, even though it may not have been fully accomplished. He knows the desire of my heart has been to fulfil the numerous missions which I have taken during the last thirty-seven years of my life.

Since I came home, I have contrasted the present condition of myself and this people with what existed when I first became acquainted with this gospel. Then we were a little handful of people—there were, perhaps, not a hundred persons in all the States who had received the truth. I received it about five months after the organization of this Church, and, although but a boy, was immediately called to the ministry. In my inexperience I went forth, with gladness of heart, to bear my humble testimony to what I knew to be true. You may ask me if I had a knowledge before I commenced preaching this gospel. I answer, yes. I went forth from a farming occupation in the eastern part of the State of New York, and traveled alone between two hundred and three hundred miles, for the purpose of beholding the Prophet Joseph Smith. I found him in Fayette, Seneca County, New York, at the house of father Whitmer, where this Church was organized with only six members. In that house I found not only Joseph, the Prophet, but David Whitmer, John Whitmer, Christian Whitmer, and many of those witnesses whose names are recorded in the Book of Mormon. Those were happy days to me. To see a prophet of the living God, to look on a man whom the Lord had raised up to bring forth one of the most glorious records that ever saluted the ears of mortal man, was to me almost equal to beholding the face of an holy angel! Yet, when I took that journey, and first beheld his countenance, I did not certainly know that he was a prophet. I believed him to be such because of the purity of the doctrine that I had heard preached which he had brought forth. I knew it was a scriptural doctrine, agreeing in every respect with the ancient gospel. For although but a boy, I had already become acquainted, in some measure, with the doctrines of the various religious sects of the day, but none of them satisfied me, none of them seemed to coincide with the word of God. I stood aloof from all, until I heard this, when my mind became fully satisfied that God had raised up a people to proclaim the gospel in all its ancient beauty and simplicity, with power to administer in its ordinances. That was a great satisfaction, so far as faith was concerned, but still I sought for a knowledge. I felt as though I was not qualified to stand before the people, and tell them that the Book of Mormon was a divine revelation, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, unless I had a stronger testimony than that afforded by ancient prophets. However great my assurance might be, it seemed to me, that to know for myself, it required a witness independent of the testimony of others. I sought for this witness. I did not receive it immediately, but when the Lord saw the integrity of my heart and the anxiety of my mind—when He saw that I was willing to travel hundreds of miles for the sake of learning the principles of the truth, He gave me a testimony for myself, which conferred upon me the most perfect knowledge that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, and that this book, called the Book of Mormon, was in reality a Divine revelation, and that God had once more, in reality, spoken to the human family. What joy this knowledge gave me! No language that I am acquainted with could describe the sensations I experienced when I received a knowledge from Heaven of the truth of this work.

In that early day the prophet Joseph said to me that the Lord had revealed that twelve men were to be chosen as Apostles. A manuscript revelation to this effect, given in 1829—before the rise of this Church—was laid before me, and I read it. Joseph said to me, although I was young, weak, inexperienced, especially in public speaking, and ignorant of many important things which we now all understand, that I should be one of this Twelve. It seemed to me a very great saying. I looked upon the Twelve Apostles who lived in ancient days with a great deal of reverence—as being almost superhuman. They were, indeed, great men—not by virtue of the flesh, nor their own natural capacities, but they were great because God called them. When Joseph told me that I would be one of the Twelve, I knew all things were possible with God, but it seemed to me that I would have to be altogether changed to occupy such a great position in the Church and Kingdom of our God.

But I will pass over the first years of the organization of the Church and come down to the time when the Twelve were chosen. It was in the year 1835. In the preceding year a few of us, by commandment and revelation from God, went up to the State of Missouri in company with the Prophet Joseph Smith. By the direction of Joseph I was requested to stay in Clay County for a few months, to visit the Saints scattered through those regions, to preach to and comfort them, and to lay before them the manuscript revelations, for they were not then fully acquainted with all the revelations which had been given. After having accomplished this work, and proclaimed the gospel to many branches of the Church in the western part of Missouri, I returned again a thousand miles to the State of Ohio, preaching by the way, suffering much from the chills, and the fever and ague, while passing through those low sickly countries, wading swamps and sloughs, lying down on the prairies in the hot sun, fifteen or twenty miles from any habitation, and having a hearty shake of the ague, then a violent fever, thus wandering along for months before getting back to Kirtland, Ohio, where the Prophet lived. In the meantime, however, I built up some few branches of the Church, and then started for the capital of the State of Ohio—the city of Columbus. I entered the city, a stranger, on foot, and alone, not knowing that there was a Latter-day Saint within many miles, but, while passing along the crowded streets, I caught a glimpse of the countenance of a man who passed, and whirling around instantly, I went after him, and inquired of him if he knew whether there were any people called “Mormons” in the city of Columbus. Said he: “I am one of that people, and the only one that resides in the city.” I looked upon this as a great marvel. “How is it,” said I, “that here in this great and populous city, where hundreds are passing to and fro, that I should be influenced to turn and accost the only Latter-day Saint residing here.” I look upon it as a revelation, as a manifestation of the power of God in my behalf. He took me to his house, and, when there, presented me with a paper published by our people in Kirtland. In that paper I saw an advertisement, in which br. Pratt was requested to be at Kirtland on such a day and at such an hour, to attend meeting in the Temple, that he might be ready in take his departure with the Twelve who had been chosen. The day and hour designated were right at hand; the Twelve were chosen, and were soon to start on their first mission as a Council. I had been traveling among strangers for months, and had not seen the paper.

I saw that I had not time to reach Kirtland on foot, as I had been accustomed to travel, and consequently could not thus comply with the request; but, with a little assistance, I got into the very first stage that went out, and started post-haste for Kirtland, and landed at Willoughby, or what was then called Chagim, three miles from Kirtland, to which I traveled on foot, reaching there on Sunday morning at the very hour appointed for the meeting, which I entered, valise in hand, not having had time to deposit it by the way. There I met with Joseph, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, Martin Harris, and others of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon, besides several of the Twelve who had been chosen and ordained a short time previous. They were meeting on that day in order to be fully organized and qualified for their first mission as a council. And, strange to relate, it had been prophesied in that meeting, and in prior meetings, I would be there on that day. They had predicted this, although they had not heard of me for some time, and did not know where I was. They knew I had been in Missouri, and that I had started from there, several months before, but the Lord poured out the spirit of prophecy upon them, and they predicted I would be there at that meeting. When they saw me walk into the meeting, many of the Saints could scarcely believe their own eyes, the prediction was fulfilled before them so perfectly. I look at these things as miraculous manifestations of the Spirit of God.

I was ordained, and went forth with the Council of the Twelve. We performed an extended mission through the eastern States, built up churches, and returned again to Kirtland.

It is not my intention to give many items of our history. I merely touch upon these points, as they present themselves to my mind. I have continued, from that day until the present, to bear testimony to that which I know to be true. I do not speak enthusiastically when I say I KNOW. It is not a spirit of excitement which prompts me to declare these things, but I testify now, to that which I know by revelation to me from heaven, as I have testified to hundreds and thousands of people, both in America, in England, and on the Continent in Europe. I know this great work which you, Latter-day Saints, have received, to be the work of Almighty God. I have the same certainty that I have that you are now sitting on these seats. This religion is not a whim; it is not a wild enthusiastic creed, invented by human wisdom, but the origin of this Church is divine. This book, called the Book of Mormon, God gave, by the inspiration of His holy Spirit, to Joseph Smith, whom you and I believe, and not only believe, but know to be, a prophet. This book I consider the choicest book communicated to the children of men for many centuries. The choicest! Why do I say the choicest? Are there not many useful and interesting books of great value, containing much information and many things of importance, that have been sought out by the judgment, skill, and learning of men? Yes; but among all those which have appeared since the first century of the Christian era, there is one common characteristic—viz., they were written by the wisdom of man. No doubt, in many respects, though unknown to their authors, they were measurably dictated by the inspiration of the Spirit of the living God. But God Himself is the author of the Book of Mormon. He inspired the ideas it contains, and gave them by the Urim and Thummim. He sent forth His angel from heaven, clothed in brightness and glory, to chosen witnesses, commanding them to declare to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, that this precious book was a divine revelation. How great, then, is the importance of this work!

It was a very interesting period of my life, when but nineteen years of age, to visit the place where this Church was organized—the room of old father Whitmer—where the Lord spoke to His servant Joseph and others, as printed in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. In that same room a revelation, through the prophet Joseph, was given to me, November 4th, 1830, which is also printed. That house will, no doubt, be celebrated for ages to come, as the one chosen by the Lord in which to make known the first elements of the organization of His Kingdom in the latter days.

But there are many wonderful things connected with this dispensation—not only in the manifestations of the Spirit of God to His servants in the many revelations that were given to individuals, in healing the sick, in casting out devils, in restoring the blind to their sight, in making the deaf to hear, and in causing the lame man to leap as a hart—but what is still more wonderful, the gathering of the people from distant nations. It is a wonder to me to look upon the great sea of faces now before me in this bowery. Twenty years ago on the twenty-first day of July, I stood solitary and alone on this great city plot, near the place where now stands bishop Hunter’s house, being the first man of the Latter-day Saints that ever stood on this ground: this was in the afternoon of the twenty-first day of July, 1847. Brother Erastus Snow entered the valley with me in the afternoon. We traveled down to the southeast of the city. Br. Erastus lost his coat off his horse, and went back to hunt it up, and told me if I wanted to look over the country he would wait for me at the mouth of what we now call Emigration Canyon. I started from where we parted, and came up and stood on the bank of City Creek. I gazed on the surrounding scenery with peculiar feelings in my heart. I felt as though it was the place for which we had so long sought. Brother Brigham had requested me to proceed on and search out the road. Several of the brethren had been taken sick at Yellow Creek, and they appointed me and a small company to go on and see if we could find anything of Salt Lake Valley or a country suitable for a location. What did I see when I came into this valley? I saw some few green bushes on yonder bench, but saw but little life throughout the valley, except a certain insect that was afterwards called a cricket. I saw them cropping the few isolated bushes, and gnawing everything green around them. The land on yonder bench was all parched up, and the soil, as we went down still further, also dry and baked; but as we neared the waters we could see there was a little moisture round the banks. It was really a solitary place, and is well described by the prophet David in the 107th Psalm. He exclaims in this beautiful language: “O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hands of the enemy; And gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north, and from the south.” But David describes the country to which this people were to be gathered. He calls it a dreary desolate land. “They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.” Are there not many sitting on these seats who can reflect back to the time when they wandered over the solitary plains, the arid deserts, and rugged mountains? Are there not here some of the pioneers who were numbered among the one hundred and forty-three who traveled fifteen hundred miles from Nauvoo and a thousand from our Winter Quarters on the Missouri River, who can bear testimony that we did “wander in the wilderness in a solitary way?” Oh, how solitary it was except for the red men, buffalo, a few antelope, some elk, deer, and howling wolves! It was indeed solitary; no road broken for us, no bridges across the streams; we were unable to tell what latitude or longitude we were in only by taking astronomical observations—getting the altitude of the sun, moon, or stars, and determining our latitude and longitude to find out where we were, as sea captains do on the great deep. And thus we continued, month after month, to wander in this solitary way, in this wilderness, as it were, and when we entered these valleys we found no city already built for us. David said that the people who should be gathered from all lands would “find no city to dwell in”—no city already prepared for them.

Did we have any suffering, affliction, hunger, thirst, and fatigue? I can bear testimony that the pioneers, and many others who followed in their track that season, can look back to that period of their lives as to a time when they experienced the fulfillment of David’s words—“Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainteth in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.” This was literally fulfilled, for we were faithful in calling on the Lord; we bowed before Him in the morning, we humbled ourselves before Him in the evening, and we prostrated ourselves before Him in our secret places. Some of us went out upon the hills by ourselves, and called upon the Lord, according to the order of the Holy Priesthood, which order many of you who have received your endowments understand. Many times we were thirsty, and our souls were ready to faint within us, but we came forth by the direction of the Almighty. His hand was with us, He heard our cries, our prayers came up before Him, and He delivered us from all our afflictions. Yet we found no city to dwell in, no splendid houses, mansions, and palaces, and everything conducive to happiness and comfort, as our emigration from foreign countries find in these times.

Finding no city to dwell in, the Lord permitted us to prepare a city for habitation. I have stated that the Lord had accomplished wonders—great wonders—besides healing the sick and doing those things already named, and one of those great wonders is the city of Great Salt Lake. It is a miracle to my eyes, it is a miracle to the Latter-day Saints who dwell within it, it is a miracle to all the inhabitants of the Territory, it is a miracle to all our enemies scattered abroad, and a wonder to all the nations of the earth who have read its description. Let me tell a secret that some of you, perhaps, have not fully understood. Do you know, Latter-day Saints, that this city is already celebrated in distant nations, across the sea, as one of the most beautiful cities upon the American Continent? It is even so. What renders it beautiful? It is not because all the houses have been joined house to house, and story piled on story. No; that does not add to the beauty of a city. That is after the fashion of old Babylon, or like the cities of the nations. They, it is true, build some very superb buildings, of the most beautiful and costly materials—granite and marble stone, magnificent in style, and adorned with all the beauties of modern architecture. We see this in the cities of the eastern states, in old England, on the Continent of Europe, and wherever modern civilization extends; but what is all this when compared to the beauty of our habitations? When emerging from Parley’s Canyon in the stage, I put my head out of the window to look for the city of Great Salt Lake, but it was so completely shrouded in trees that I could scarcely get a glimpse of it. Now and then I caught sight of a chimney peeping out above the stately shade trees and smiling orchards; I could also see this great tabernacle that you are now building, towering up, like a little mountain; but it was impossible to get a full view of the city generally, it was so completely covered with orchards and ornamental shade trees. I thought to myself that I never saw a grander sight. Where did these trees come from? You brought them down from the mountains, then little saplings; many of you brought them on your shoulders, others piled them on their wagons, and then you set them out on land that had the appearance of being a parched desert, and in soil that to all human appearance was unproductive. And during the twenty years that have rolled over your heads, you have beautified this city, and made it a paradise. It surpasses all the cities of the east in beauty, and your industry is spoken of abroad as something wonderful and marvelous. For a people without capital driven from their former homes, having nothing, as it were, but bone and sinew, to bring to pass the marvels we now behold, is considered without a parallel.

But David says, that this people, gathered from all nations, who would find no city to dwell in, should finally prepare a city for habitation. Thank you, brethren, for having fulfilled the prophecy. Many other things, in this same Psalm, are now being fulfilled. The inspired psalmist predicts that the Lord would cause waters to break out in the wilderness, and in the desert springs of water, and that the thirsty ground should become pools of water. Has this been fulfilled? What aspect is presented over the country, for miles and miles around, when you irrigate your farming lands? Do you cast your eyes over them sometimes, and see standing pools of water? If you do you behold the fulfillment of the psalm. In the twenty-ninth chapter of Isaiah—the very place where this book (the Book of Mormon) is spoken of, and the marvelous work that should be accomplished by its means, we also read that a forest “shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest.” David also says, that you were not only to make a city for habitation, but you were to plant vineyards, sow fields, and eat the increase thereof, and he would not suffer your cattle to decrease.

I have been gone about three years, and I would like to inquire of those who keep cattle, whether they are on the increase in this Territory? I think if they were to answer they would say they are. Brother Kimball says the Territory is perfectly alive with them, and I have no doubt that the hills, mountains, and valleys are sprinkled over with them, and that they are on the increase. This is what David says—“He suffers not their cattle to decrease;” and he also informs us that that barren, thirsty land, that solitary place, that wilderness through which His people should be led, should become, as it were, a fruitful field—this you know has been literally fulfilled. We are further informed that “blessed are they who sow beside all waters and send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.” How do you farm in this land? You answer, by the side of the water streams. They do not farm in this way in the old countries, but wherever they find a beautiful piece of soil, whether on mountain or plain, they convert it into a farm, it is no matter if it be many miles from the water. But Isaiah saw that this people would be put in possession of a land where it would be necessary to “sow beside all waters,” and in passing up and down this Territory it is universally the case that all our farming lands are located alongside the water streams which come out of the mountains.

Do you want a blessing, brethren? If you do, Isaiah has given you one, for he exclaims, “Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.” David also declares, in the Psalm already referred to, that “He setteth the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock.” What does the Psalmist mean? Does he mean to say that the families of a poor man who has been gathered should increase like a flock? This is what he predicts; why do the world find fault with it? Are there not some faultfinders? I hope not. Br. Kimball says they are all dead; if so, it is to be hoped that we will be troubled with them no more.

We should rejoice to think that God has brought us into this desert country, and made it so fruitful, like the Garden of Eden, where the poor man, who in the old countries could scarcely live, has, in the course of the twenty years, not only got flocks and herds, but “families” (for David actually puts in the plural) “like a flock.” To go around these valleys, and occasionally count the families of a poor man, is like counting a flock of sheep. Gentiles (we merely repeat the name they have given themselves) feel like finding fault with us in regard to this matter, but if we are satisfied, why should they find fault? If the poor man has been lifted up on high, just as David said he should be, and if the Lord has made him to have families like a flock, why should you find fault with this poor man? Is he not better off here than in the old countries, where for twelve or sixteen hours daily labor he received only eight shillings per week, for himself and family—and was scarcely able to keep body and soul together—living and dying in the most squalid poverty?

I cannot see any harm in the people coming to this distant land, and gathering around them flocks, and herds, and fields, and each multiplying his own families, till they resemble a flock. All seem to feel tolerably well about it. The wives of these poor men have smiling faces, and seem happy. I do not know but some of them quarrel, but that does not prove that the principle is not good and true. Monogamist families also quarrel sometimes, but you would not do away with marriage, and say that a man ought not to have one wife, because they pull hair occasionally. Why find fault, then, with the poor man David speaks about, whose families should be like a flock, because now and then one gets up a quarrel? The system is good; the quarrel is no part of the system, but is a violation of it, and is the introduction of discord into that which the Lord intended to harmonize. Plurality of wives is something a little different from what our fathers have taught us, and it will take us a little while to learn this ancient scriptural order. You would not find fault with a little child because it did not learn the alphabet, spelling lessons, and get into reading in one day. Let all have a chance to learn by experience, and by that which God has revealed in ancient and modern times, to rule, govern, and control these great flocks and families so that they may be worthy to rule in the Kingdom of God.

There are many curious things written in the ancient prophecies and in the writings of the Psalmist. The people abroad in the world generally think a great deal of what David said. There are some churches so pious that they would not have a hymn, composed in modern times, sung by their congregations. They would think their chapels were polluted by singing a hymn composed by any poet or poetess in these days. You may think I am misrepresenting them, but I am not. You go to Scotland if you wish to see the truth of these words. Will the Scotch Presbyterians permit hymns of their own composition to be sung in their sanctuaries? No; what do they substitute? The Psalms of David—the man after God’s own heart, who was so righteous when but a boy that God was with him, and who, long before he was raised to the throne of Israel, and while yet a youth, as it were, had eight wives, and into whose bosom God afterwards gave all the wives of his master Saul. This man knew how to make psalms, for he made them by inspiration for the Scotch Church to sing; he under– stood it, and when he looked upon and realized what a flock of wives and children he had, he no doubt felt a glow of pleasure in anticipation of the time when the same order should be established among that people who were to be gathered from all lands. When have any people ever fulfilled these ancient prophecies if this people are not doing it now.

Go back, now, historians, and tell us what people have ever fulfilled these sayings, except the Latter-day Saints. Did the ancient church ever fulfil these prophecies? No; why not? Because the dispensation of gathering had not then come. They were commanded to build up churches in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, and various parts of the earth, and when they had built up these churches they were permitted to stay at home. David says the people of God are to be gathered from all lands, and we see that it was not done by the ancient church. Now come down from the days of the introduction of Christianity into Palestine to the present period and place your finger, if you can, on a people who have fulfilled these prophecies. You can find nothing that has had the appearance of it until the appearance of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Since his day you can see what the Lord has done in sending abroad His missionaries, as swift messengers, to preach the gospel to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, baptizing all who would repent, and building up churches to His holy name, then proclaiming in the ears of all the Saints, “Go from all these nations to the great western hemisphere, locate yourselves on the high portions of the North American Continent in the midst of the mountains, and be gathered in one, that you may fulfil the prophecies that have been uttered concerning you.” When we see this, we see God fulfilling that which He spake many long centuries ago. And the work is still rolling on, just as fast as the wheels of time can roll it. The Prophet Isaiah, in the 35th chapter, says “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.”

Latter-day Saints lift up your hearts and rejoice with joy unspeakable, for you are the very ones who have the privilege of fulfilling this, you see it directly before you. Has this prophecy been fulfilled here? Was there a wilderness here? Was there a desert here, and does it blossom as the rose? I was not here this spring, but I will venture to say that if I had been within three miles of this city, in April or May, I should have seen, for five or six square miles, peach, pear, plum, and apple trees all in bloom, literally making the wilderness to blossom as the rose. What a miracle compared with twenty years ago, when I stood, solitary and alone, by the side of City Creek, near this temple block, and surveyed the scene! The prophecy of Isaiah has been fulfilled, thanks be to Him who rules, controls, and guides all these things.

If there ever was a people that needed blessings, it seems to me that the Latter-day Saints are the ones. How much you have suffered in years past and gone! How great have been your trials for the truth’s sake! How great your exertions to gather out from among the nations of the earth! How great has been your toil in this desert country to fulfil these prophecies! God bless you, and your generations for evermore, and give you a hundred fold, besides these valleys, to make you and your posterity rejoice, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, September 16, 1860.

I arise to address myself to the congregation of the Saints who are here assembled with a degree of pleasure and satisfaction, feeling that it is a great privilege that we enjoy of meeting together in this bowery, from Sabbath to Sabbath, for the purpose of hearing from and worshipping the Lord our God.

It has always been a great satisfaction to my mind, and a source of pleasure, to speak of the things of the kingdom of God, especially on those occasions on which the Lord has condescended to bless me with a portion of his Spirit; for the Spirit of the Lord gives joy and satisfaction to all those who are made partakers of it, whether it be the speaker or the hearer; and without that Spirit no person can expect to enjoy any great degree of happiness in this life or in that which is to come. It is contrary to the nature of happiness for us to undertake to enjoy ourselves independent of the approbation of Heaven, and independent of the Holy Spirit which the Almighty pours out upon those who are honest and upright before him. There is no happiness in anything else; there is no place worthy of being called a place of happiness only in the enjoyment of the favor of God and of his Holy Spirit. And those persons are truly blessed who have the greatest share of that Spirit abiding with them; and when that Spirit withdraws from the hearts of mankind, they are truly cursed. In the Spirit of the Lord there is peace, there is joy, there is light, there is truth, there is hope, and there is truth. Without that Spirit all is darkness, all is wretchedness, and all is shut up and closed as it were to the human mind, and future hope, or hope of future blessings and exaltation, is cut off.

Perhaps this may be the last opportunity, for some time to come, at least, that I shall have of addressing the Saints in Utah. In a few days I expect to be wending my way, in company with some of my brethren, on another mission to the United States, for the purpose of doing whatever the Spirit of the Lord may direct in those lands. Whether I shall return again to Utah, it matters not, if it so be that I keep the commandments of God and do his will. All flesh is in His hands, and He governs and controls all things according to his own righteous will and purposes, and preserves in life whomsoever he sees proper, and takes away his servants whenever it seems to him good to do so. Whether I shall be spared many years or few, it matters not to me, if I am only faithful to the end. This is my object; this is the foremost thing in my mind; and it should be the foremost in the minds of all the Latter-day Saints. Many great and good men have fallen by the power of their enemies, by the Destroyer, by sickness, and by accidents; but this is the lot of all mankind, to pass through the veil—to go from this stage of existence to another, altogether a different state of existence from this, in many respects. But even this state of existence that we now enjoy is a pleasure to the righteous; it is a great satisfaction to those that keep the commandments of God. Life is sweet, and there are but very few individuals who are willing to part with it, even though they knew with the perfect knowledge that when leaving this mortal state of existence, where we are subject to toil and fatigue, to pain and sorrow—though they knew that they would enter into the presence of God, and enjoy complete happiness in his kingdom henceforth and forever; yet there are many, who although they might know this with the most perfect knowledge, they would pray in their hearts that they might abide here a little longer. There are but very few individuals upon the earth among the Latter-day Saints who desire to die; and I doubt very much whether there have been many persons of that kind, in the past ages of the world, among the true-hearted servants of God, who desired to die. When they reflected upon the work that they might accomplish and perform in this world, they would still feel to pray for life, even immortal life to be continued unto them.

Why do we desire to live? Is it to accumulate riches? No; this ought not to be the cause of the desire in our hearts; for if we should have power to heap up gold as the sands—if we should have power to collect the treasures of the earth together to a very great extent, and have power to have everything, so far as this world’s goods are concerned, to the fullest extent of our desires, what is it even then? Can we take those things into the grave with us? Can we carry our farms, our houses, our carriages, and other property, behind the veil with us? No, we cannot. Then why should this be in the hearts of so many of those who profess to be Saints as the uppermost desire? Why should the people lie awake to study how to collect an abundance of the things of this life? Why should they cling to the things that must perish and be done away? This is one of the great temptations that beset the pathway of mortal man. He desires to heap up the riches of this world, as though he were to stay here forever. But he may inquire if the original desire is not placed in the heart of man for a good purpose? Yes, it is; but that desire should be controlled according to the law of God and the will of Heaven. We should seek for nothing in this dispensation and in the kingdom in which we are engaged—we should seek for nothing, I repeat, that would be calculated to lead our minds astray from the great purposes we have in view as Latter-day Saints. Nothing should be permitted to lead our minds from God and his kingdom, and from worshipping him with the fulness of our hearts. Desires are very good in their places: when dictated by the Spirit of God, they will be gratified in due time. Every man and woman should seek in a lawful way to procure the things that are necessary in this life to benefit themselves, their neighbors, and the poor around them, and make a good use of the blessings God bestows, and the things he entrusts them with in this world. But how many there are among the Saints of the living God, whose hearts and minds are almost overwhelmed with the things of this present life! They covet gold and silver, houses and lands, and other riches in abundance; and they know not why. I should delight to see the Saints of God rich; yes, I should be pleased to see the poorest Saint among us have in his possession all that his heart could desire, if he would use those things properly that were committed to his charge and according to the will of Him that made him. I should also desire to see no poor in the midst of Zion, but that all might be blest with a good supply of the things of this life. I desire to see the day come when all the Latter-day Saints who have suffered shall have everything which their hearts can desire in righteousness of the things of this world, when they will be good for them, and when they can use them for the glory of God. Until that period shall come, I doubt whether riches will benefit the Saints of God. If, peradventure, any of you, by your diligence and perseverance, should happen to accumulate riches to some extent, if you should use them for the purposes which God has ordained, all will be well; but if not, they will prove a curse to you, instead of a blessing. And I will add that there is one thing that I am confident of—viz., that in Utah there is not much danger of the Latter-day Saints becoming very rich. If they accumulate by their perseverance a sufficiency of breadstuffs and those things that are necessary for their present sustenance and future security against the famines that are to spread desolation in the earth, they will do well. I think there are no people upon the face of the earth that need to envy the Latter-day Saints, so far as their temporal prospects are concerned. In other respects they have great cause to envy them.

There is not much chance for the Latter-day Saints to grow rich in this Territory—I mean according to the meaning of the term in the world. There is and ever will be too much to be done in various kinds of labor for the building up of the kingdom of God. Your land, of course, yields abundantly where it is well cultivated; but it requires a great deal of toil to accomplish it. About three or four times the labor is required of the farmers and agriculturists than is required in other countries. Why, it takes a man almost one-half of his time to get his fuel from the canyons, about one-quarter to irrigate the soil, and of course the rest is well occupied with the other duties of life. This being the case, then, there is not much prospect of soon becoming very rich. We ought, nevertheless, to be thankful for the blessings we enjoy; for the Almighty has brought us into a country where we have not the privilege of heaping up riches and ruining ourselves forever. It takes a people a long time to prepare themselves for riches. The old principle which was planted in the hearts of our ancestors, which was a principle of covetousness, as practiced by the Gentiles in all ages, has become a part of the nature of the human family, by tradition; so much so, that it seems to be one of the most difficult things to root out of the hearts of men. To accomplish this, the Lord has to train the people, year after year, in order to get it out of their minds; and he has given us a very thorough training and experience in order to deliver this people from this covetous feeling and principle.

If we reflect back upon our past history—and I believe that the Latter-day Saints are acquainted with that history, either by actual experience, by reading, or by hearing it verbally recited; suffice it to say that they are pretty well acquainted with the history of this Church for the last thirty years—what has the Lord been trying to accomplish since the rise of this Church? Has he not been trying to accomplish one of the greatest events and one of the greatest works ever accomplished among mankind? Yes, he has been trying to eradicate from the people the old leaven of the Gentiles that has been established in the hearts of men so many generations, and to prepare the Saints for the great work of the last days. In regard to heaping up a multitude of the riches of this life, all our past history shows that the Lord was so determined to rid us of this principle as far as possible, in order that we might enjoy riches when he shall see fit to bestow them upon us, that he suffered us to be driven from our inheritances, to undergo many privations, and thus be prepared for the vicissitudes of future life.

We need not be fainthearted nor discouraged in regard to the riches of this life, for this people are bound to be the richest of any people upon the face of the whole earth, in the Lord’s own due time. That will be in fulfillment of prophecy, and no people that ever dwelt upon this earth ever came up to what the Latter-day Saints will be in the accumulation of the things of this life. But when we reflect upon these things, we ought to pray earnestly that we may never be put in the possession of those things until we are rid of those feelings of selfishness and covetousness. (President B. Young: We shall not be; for the Lord knows that wealth would certainly be a curse to us.) It frequently looks very curious to me, looking at it naturally, and causes me some astonishment, when I see the pride and arrogance of the children of men; for I see that the whole bent of their minds is upon the wheat and corn, that they may grow: their contemplations seem to be upon the plans and means by which they can best accumulate the treasures of this world. Who would place their minds in this direction when they see thousands and millions perishing and annually going into their graves? And who would believe that they would be so exceedingly anxious to heap up millions more than they actually need? They see scores of their neighbors cut down upon their right hand and upon their left: they have the experience before them to prove that all must go into their graves without carrying with them the goods and riches of this world. Why is it that it does not take away this feeling from them, either morning or night? Men of this kind are awake during many of the silent hours of the night to calculate how they can the easiest accumulate riches.

We have brought these principles and notions with us; we have inherited them from our fathers; they were instilled into us by our parents; and we have to get rid of them as soon as we can, in order that we may be prepared to receive the true principles in the proper spirit. We ought to be thankful that we are in a country where we cannot get rich as easily as we desire to—a country where it takes from morning till night in hard labor to get the common necessaries of life, and that this will continue until the Lord says that our hearts are prepared, and we are capable of enjoying the good things of this life.

We, as Latter-day Saints, not only have the promise of earthly riches and temporal comforts; but, what is far more joyful to us and more satisfactory to our minds, is, that we look forward to an eternity of riches—to a perpetual increase of wealth to be given unto us, if we are faithful before the Lord, to be enjoyed upon righteous principles—to be enjoyed where no covetousness shall mar our feelings—to be participated in by the Latter-day Saints when they have clean hands, pure hearts—when they can use the blessings bestowed upon them according to the mind and will of God and in peace, where riches will impart the most perfect happiness to the Saints of the living God.

These are the riches we should seek after first—these the treasures that our hearts should be set upon—the riches that are behind the veil, that extend beyond this mortal sphere—the riches that are as endurable as eternity. It is these riches that will be able to endure and stand when all earthly riches shall vanish away like the dream of a night vision.

Thirty years ago next January, by a revelation that was given through the Prophet Joseph, we were told to seek earnestly for the riches of eternity; and the Lord said it must needs be that my people shall be tried and proven, that they may be prepared to receive that which is in store for the faithful. Seek first for the riches that are in the future life. Seek first, as our Savior bade his disciples, the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all things shall be added to you, that are needful and necessary.

It will be thirty years next Wednesday since I was baptized into this Church—almost one-third of a century since I have had an opportunity of understanding the things of the kingdom of God in some measure—of being baptized into that kingdom which shall endure forever. How shall I look back upon these thirty years? In many respects I look back with exceeding great joy; in some respects, with exceeding great sorrow. I can see where I have failed in many things, and that if I had lived as faithful as I might have done, I might have done more to the honor and glory of God. I might have been a person more humble and diligent in obeying counsel—more faithful in the discharge of many duties that are required of a person holding the Priesthood; I might have taken a course that would have been better for myself in many respects, better for mankind, better for my family, and for the cause and kingdom of God. You can easily perceive, then, that reflection upon these things gives me a degree of sorrow. But after considering all these matters, when I reflect upon the little good that I have done, and upon the travels and labors that I have performed, the success that has attended my efforts, and the few good desires that I have had to build up the kingdom, I certainly have great joy. I feel a satisfaction in my own mind in contemplating my past life. I feel a joy and satisfaction that I would not part with for all the luxuries and honors of this present life. These would be nothing in comparison with it. I ever expect to look back upon the past period of my history with joy, so far as the good is concerned. I shall have to reflect with pleasure that I have preached the Gospel to so many—that I have so often borne my testimony to the great work of the last days in which we are engaged. I shall never regret any of the testimonies that I have borne in regard to the future events that are coming upon the earth; I shall never have to regret exhorting mankind to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to repent of their sins, to believe in the laws, doctrines, and ordinances of the Church and kingdom of God, and in the holy Priesthood restored to man in this generation. Have I any reason to regret these things now? No; and I should very much dislike being placed back thirty years in my his– tory, and to have to live my life over again. I should be exceedingly fearful that I might not live it as well as I have done; I should be afraid of taking a step that would prove my overthrow. How long I shall live hereafter it matters not. I desire to live, if it is the will of my Heavenly Father; and if it is his will, I desire to die. I desire to be perfectly submissive. Death has lost its terrors to me. I feel no fear of pain, for it is only momentary. There is pain in yielding up this mortal tabernacle in many cases, but what is it? It only lasts for a few minutes, a few hours, days, or weeks, and then all is over.

The great object of our existence is to have the mind and the spirit right, the feelings and passions under control—to have the mortal man that dwells within led and dictated by the Holy Spirit. If that is right, the pain and suffering of the body is but small. If we have hope of eternal life—I do not mean that kind of hope that exists among the Christian world at large, or that which exists among the Pagans or Mahomedans—but I mean that kind of hope that is based upon a sure foundation—a hope that we can really depend upon—a hope that is not built upon a sandy foundation, but one that takes hold of the things in eternity, that lays hold of the things of the Most High God—a hope founded upon the promises of the Almighty, upon the Priesthood which is after the order of an endless life, and obedience to the laws of heaven and those of the kingdom of God on the earth—a hope that blooms with immortality and eternal lives.

This is what imparts confidence to man and takes away the fear of death, distress, and terror from the minds of the Saints.

Have I this hope? I have to some degree, and I would to God that I had it to a greater degree. Promises have been showered upon my head; blessings have been pronounced upon me by the Priesthood at different times; other blessings have been sealed upon me, through the holy ordinances of the Gospel, by the proper authority: but I contemplate that these are conditional. There is a small degree of trembling and fear that, after all, I may prove unfaithful, and that I may not be able to endure unto the end.

The great promises of our Savior to his Apostles have been made upon this condition. It is true there are some promises that God has made upon some subjects without conditions. We might mention the following in the revelation upon marriage, concerning sealing blessings upon persons, and sealing them up to eternal life—sealing upon them blessings for time and for all eternity, at the time when the man and woman go forth and are sealed by the Priesthood having authority to do this. This remains upon them, if they are sealed unconditionally; at least, the revelation says, if such a one transgresses, he shall be destroyed in the flesh and suffer until the day of redemption; and then they shall come forth and inherit all that was placed upon their heads by the servants of God, on the condition that they have not committed the sin against the Holy Ghost or shed innocent blood. This would seem to be as near an unconditional promise as can well be made to mortals. But this is not altogether unconditional, for there are some exceptions; but it would come as near as anything we have ever read of.

This ought to be a comfort to the Saints, and not a license for them to sin and commit all manner of blasphemies; but it should be a comfort and a consolation to those that may, in the hour of temptation, be overtaken in a fault, to encourage them to turn unto the Lord their God with all their hearts, minds, might, and strength. Then they can lay hold of these promises, and with them come forth in the morning of the first resurrection, and inherit all that was placed upon their heads. But when we reflect upon pain in this life, it is grievous to be borne and to think of. When we think that a man may be buffeted, not only in this life, but until the morning of the first resurrection, this ought to cause the heart of every Latter-day Saint to shrink from everything that is sinful. What! Shall we offend God who has made these great and precious promises? Where is our life, if we should offend God, the giver of all these good things? If we should dare to sin upon such a promise, we should indeed be deserving of the severest punishment. Let no Latter-day Saint, then, try to claim these great and precious things, if they willfully commit sin, and because the Lord has promised that they should only be punished for a season. The time of their punishment is here in this life, and it is sure not to extend into the other for any great period. Yet there is far more satisfaction in being perfectly honest before God and men—yes, far more satisfaction, joy, and consolation here in this life, to live without any threatening and punishment in this or in the next life. Every man that has the right spirit within him will feel that he ought to keep the commandments of God; and it is the great source of our happiness and the fountain from which we draw all these great, glorious, and honorable tokens of the approval of our Heavenly Father. Obedience produces enduring happiness in our minds. Then let us love God and love righteousness, because it is right; let us love honesty, love to do good, because there is pleasure in doing so; let us hate wickedness because it is hateful in its nature; let us hate that which has the appearance of evil, and do that because we know it to be the feeling of God, of angels, and of all good men.

These should be the feelings of every Latter-day Saint; they should study to discriminate between the right and the wrong, and be determined to walk continually in the path of virtue, of righteousness, and of truth. Let us study to make ourselves approved before God, that we may have his smiles and approbation continually.

We are fallen beings, and are not aware how deeply the prejudices of our forefathers have been visited upon our minds. When we think ourselves free from the bondage of our fathers, we then imagine that we become perfectly untrammeled, and we are not at all aware how deeply these prejudices have entwined themselves around our hearts. How diligent we should be to root them out, and get every feeling of our nature in the proper direction for that new state of society into which we have entered. The Lord does not prompt his servants to love the manners and evil customs of the world, and you can scarcely put your finger upon the custom that is not evil; and although the passions of human nature have been planted in the breasts of men for wise and good purposes, yet they have become so changed by associating evil with them that we do not appear to realize the influence they may exert over our minds. We therefore ought to study and to seek diligently for that light which comes from heaven, to look into our own hearts as we look into a mirror, that we may be enabled to see our foolish practices, turn from them, and feel that we are not only in the presence of man, but that we are in the presence of God, that we may become sensible of our responsibility, and act consistently in all things, that our government may be righteous and holy in all things. Let us ask ourselves the question, Are we practicing as though we were in the presence of heavenly beings, and enjoying what they enjoy, and being with them day after day, and night after night throughout all eternity? Are we prepared to stand up before God, angels, and before holy and celestial beings, with confidence and a oneness of feeling, being assured that there is nothing the matter in our hearts, but that we are upright as they are upright—that we hate iniquity as they hate it? We may feel that we are trying to do this; but a little more light of the Spirit from heaven—of the Holy Ghost shed forth upon our hearts—would enable us to see many imperfections and follies that are gathered up by the traditions of our forefathers and from the acts of our neighbors.

This being the last time, probably, that I shall have the opportunity of speaking to you in this place for some time to come, although I almost consider it unnecessary to bear my testimony before a people that have so often heard it, yet it seems it would be a satisfaction to my own mind, if it is not so to you, to bear testimony concerning the kingdom and work in which you are engaged as well as myself. Do I know that this Church and kingdom that is established here in the Territory of Utah, and whose branches extend abroad in England, in France, and in various parts of the earth—do I know that this is the kingdom spoken of by the Prophets of old—that this is the great Latter-day Kingdom of the Most High God? Yes, I do. How do I know this? Not by miracles that my eyes have beheld, though I have seen many; not by manifestations in healing the sick, although I have seen many healed; not by the testimony of others, although I have heard many, but that would not give me a living and an abiding witness. How do I know that this Latter-day Kingdom, organized by the inhabitants of this Territory, as well as the Branches that are abroad, are all included in that great and glorious kingdom of the last days that is to stand forever? Have I seen the face of the Almighty in open vision? No; this is a great privilege that I have never attained to. Have holy angels come down from heaven when I was awake and conversed with me as one man converses with another? No; I have not had so great a privilege—I have not attained to that. But I know by the power of the Holy Ghost shed forth in my heart from time to time; for, notwithstanding all my faults, all my weaknesses, my imperfections, and failings, through the past thirty years, I do know one fact, and that is that God has from time to time, through his infinite mercy and goodness, shed forth upon me his Holy Spirit, unworthy as I was to receive it, and that has borne testimony, time and again, that this is the work of God: it has given me a knowledge which it is impossible for me to doubt. If I had seen angels, I might doubt, without having the Holy Ghost. I might doubt if I had seen great miracles, without the Holy Ghost accompanying them; and I might doubt if I saw the heavens opened, if I heard the thunders roll; and I might go and build a golden calf and worship it: but when the Holy Ghost speaks to me and gives me a knowledge that this is the kingdom of God, so that I know it just as well as I know anything else, then that knowledge is past controversy. By that knowledge I know this work to be true; by it I know that this kingdom will roll on until it shall attain its high destiny, and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ.

I feel truly thankful for this know– ledge that I have been counted worthy to receive, and the greatest desire of my heart is that I may always retain this knowledge within me. The Spirit may depart for a little season, but it will return again, if we are faithful. How miserable, how unhappy would every person be to have this knowledge remain and the Spirit be taken from him. It would be calculated to make a man one of the most wretched beings upon the face of the earth. What! A knowledge that this is the work of God, and at the same time lose the Spirit that imparted it?

Now, brethren and sisters, if all of you have this knowledge, and have had the Spirit to bear this witness, beware how you grieve the Spirit of the living God, and how you turn from the influences of that Spirit to evil, unless you want to become miserable all the days of your lives.

I am going forth shortly to the United States, and I pray that the grace of God may sustain me. What is the desire of my heart? It is, O Lord my God, let thy servant have thy Spirit to direct him while upon this mission. This is the chief desire of my heart. I do not care whether I preach much or little, or whether I administer much or little, so that I perform those duties that may be re– quired at my hands. As for poverty or affliction, they matter not, if I only have the Spirit of God to accompany me. If it were not for this, I would not give anything for the testimony of this work. All those holding the Priesthood without the Spirit to accompany them can do nothing. Without a man’s testimony is accompanied by the Spirit, it will do nothing. He may multiply words—he may study, as the revelations says; and after he has done all this, without the Spirit is with him to carry conviction to the hearts of the people, all his labors will be in vain.

They have systems in the world; they have the best books that are published amongst themselves; but they do not make a right use of them; and when a man goes to preach without the Holy Ghost, to bear testimony, to be in his heart to give him utterance, it will be all in vain. Nothing can be done satisfactory either to himself or to this people.

Then I do hope and pray that not only myself, but all the Missionaries that are going across the Plains may have this Spirit all the time to be with them. Give me the Holy Spirit, and I can work the work of the Lord. Let this be promised, and all will be well.

May God bless you all! Amen.

Address by Elder Orson Pratt, Sen., July 4th, 1860.

I rise, not for the purpose of delivering a lengthy address before this assembly. I do not claim to be an orator, a statesmen, or a politician; but I am an American citizen, in common with you all; and I am proud of the name.

I look back upon my ancestors as American citizens also, not only from the foundation of this republic, but from the first settlement of this country. They were among the “Pilgrims” that landed upon our eastern shore seven generations ago.

We have listened to a very eloquent address on the rise of the American nation—on the achievement of our national Independence, in relation to establishing the great platform of American liberty—viz., the American Constitution.

Much might be said upon each of these topics. Much might be said in relation to the sufferings endured by the colonies before they achieved their independence. Much might be said in relation to the battles fought by our fathers to obtain that liberty which they and we their children enjoy. It is not my intention to dwell upon these subjects; but I will call your attention, upon this occasion, to some of the rights guaranteed to us by the Constitution of our country.

A few years sufficed to demonstrate the inadequacy of the “Articles of Confederation,” to obviate which the Constitution was established, conferring increased power upon the General Government. That its power might be clearly understood, Article X of the amendments was ratified as follows—“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” It will be perceived that there are no prohibitions upon citizens outside the boundaries of States.

In the Constitution we find certain rights and privileges guaranteed to ALL American citizens. We there find certain powers delegated to the General Government, and certain powers reserved in the respective State governments, or to American citizens.

We read, in the 4th section of the 4th article of the Constitution, words to this effect—“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of government.” This one item in the Constitution is a power granted to the American Congress—to the American nation. They were limited by the Constitution in regard to the form of government that should be established upon American soil. They have not the right, by that Constitution, to organize a government upon any other than Republican principles. They have not the right to establish a monarchy upon this soil: the Constitution forbids or prohibits their doing so. In a national capacity, under the Constitution, they have not the right to guarantee any but a Republican form of government, which government of right emanates from the people to be governed. This is the very nature of a Republican form of government, as we American citizens understand it. It differs from various other governments whose history we have read. It differs from the Republican governments of past ages. We read that Republican governments existed in some of the ancient nations. They existed for a short period, and then ceased. But their forms and the forms of the governments now in the European nations are of a kind more or less different from the one with which we, as American citizens, are blest. It is not necessary, however, for me, in the few remarks I shall make, to dwell upon the various kingdoms and empires of the old world. Doubtless the citizens of Utah are sufficiently acquainted with the history of those nations to know that our American Government differs from them all in unreservedly granting to the people the power to govern themselves—the power to appoint their own officers—the power to enact their own laws; and Congress has no power granted by the Constitution to interfere with that system. But the Congress, the United States as a Union, are restricted in this particular; they are prohibited from granting any other than a Republican form of government upon the American continent.

Let us briefly turn our attention to the State Governments, and see if the Parent Government has fulfilled its pledge, in the Constitution, by granting Republican forms of government to the several States that have been admitted into our Union. Yes, they have permitted them to elect their own officers, enact their own laws, vote at Presidential elections, and have a representation in Congress, and a voice and vote in the governmental affairs of the nation.

How is it with the Territories? Is a Republican form of government extended to the Territories, according to the spirit and letter of the Constitution? In the first place, where can you find one item, from the beginning to the end, that grants to Congress the right to establish a Territorial government, unless petitioned by the people so to do? It cannot be found. And should citizens in a Territory petition Congress to grant to them a form of government, Congress are restricted to granting a form strictly and fully Republican. Some urge that a part of the 3rd section of Article IV—“The Congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the Territory or other property belonging to the United States,” gives Congress the right to legislate for American citizens who chance to reside in Territories. But the portion thus relied upon relates only to the disposition of Government property, and does not grant the power to dispose of the inhabitants that may dwell upon the public lands in Territories, as though the people thereof belonged to the United States as property.

My opinion is that Congress has no more power to exercise legislative jurisdiction over American citizens in Territories than it has over American citizens in States. In other words, that American citizens in Territories, equally with those in States, have the plainly guaranteed right to govern themselves. People from the various States settle upon the public domain; and shall simply crossing an air line in the same country prevent them from enjoying a Republican form of government, having a voice in the selection of their rulers, and the privilege of making their own laws without being subject to have them disapproved by Congress? If this is not the case in the treatment of Territories, I consider there is an infringement. It lies in the foundation—in the organization itself. And should the people living upon the public domain petition Congress to comply with certain conditions that were in vogue in the old monarchial nations of the world, and have their petitions granted according to its letter and spirit; they have no reason to complain. Still, it is assumed power in Congress to grant a territorial government.

But suppose we petition, in good faith, that Congress would notice that part of the Constitution that directs the giving of a Republican form of government, and we get something else, what shall we do then? It may suit the condition of the people, and it may not.

There are many rights that are named in the Constitution, and many that the Constitution says nothing about. These rights I shall not attempt to define. We have rights in regard to observing the Sabbath, and worshipping God according to the dictates of our conscience. We also have social and political rights guaranteed to us and to all the American people. All these might be taken up and reasoned upon; but you are acquainted with them.

If I were to petition Congress, I should petition that this old relic of the mother Government should be done away; and that when Congress granted a Government, they should grant a Republican instead of a monarchial one, and let all the people have the same privileges.

“But,” says one, “there is a great disparity in numbers.” What of that? Look at New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and many of the old States, where we find not only hundreds of thousands, but millions of inhabitants, and then look at Rhode Island, Delaware, and Maryland, and see the difference. If this disparity exists in States, why should it be brought up against a Territory? Those smaller States have the same representation in the Senate of the United States as the larger ones. Why, then, bring up this disparity of numbers? Some say we must not admit the Territories, because the disparity in Congress would be so great. It is all folly to bring up this argument.

Having said this much upon the rights guaranteed to American citizens, I will merely state that it is my opinion that it is the privilege of people settling upon the public domain to form a Republican “Provisional Government,” according to the feelings of the people, until Congress shall admit them into the Union.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, June 24, 1860.

I arise, by the request of brother Kimball, to speak to the congregation. What I may say I do not know at the present time; but one thing I do know, and that is, I earnestly desire the gift of the Holy Spirit, to enable me to speak to the edification of those present; and then, whatever is said will be right, and we shall be mutually instructed, and our minds informed.

One of the great fundamental principles of our religion is the Divine authority which God has sent down from heaven and conferred upon man. It lies at the foundation of the great work that we have embraced. Without it, we are nothing—we are mere ciphers; we are no better off than the rest of the world. No matter how many truths we might embrace in our faith, and how many principles we might advance for the instruction of one another, nor however much knowledge we might gain and impart one to another, yet, if we were not in possession of this principle of authority from heaven, all would be vain—all would be useless; all we could do would be like the turning to and fro of the door upon its hinges. Our ordinances would be in vain, our baptisms would be in vain, our confirmations would be in vain, our preaching and our testimonies would be in vain, and, finally, there would be nothing pertaining to our religion that would be serviceable or saveable in its nature. But let authority be sent down from heaven and conferred upon man, so that he will have the right to act in the name of the Lord, and so that he will have the right to administer ordinances in his name, and to act, to preach, to testify, and exhort in the name of the Lord.

Then what is done will stand; it will be lawful, it will be eternal, it will be recognized in the heavens in the day of judgment, and it will be sanctioned by all the pure and holy beings that are saved. When, therefore, we teach this generation, we teach this as one of the great fundamental principles of our religion.

That authority has been given, not from man, not from any individual or combinations of men, but it has been given from a superior source and a superior power, and eventually it has been conferred upon us, giving us the legal right to administer to the human family. This authority, when acted upon and when properly received, is saveable in its nature, and without it we may despair of obtaining salvation in the kingdom of God. We might as well give up first as last. But we do verily know (for with us it is not belief or guesswork)—but we have a knowledge, that God has given this authority: we know it for ourselves; we know it as individuals, and not for the rest of mankind, but each individual for himself, provided he has received the gift of the Holy Ghost; and if he has not received that gift and blessing, he does not know it, for no man can know the things of God but by the Spirit of God. No man can know by his natural eyesight, nor even see the things of God; they are to be spiritually discerned. No man can know by the hearing of the ear—by the testimonies that are given to other individuals, nor by the miracles that are performed; in short, no man can know the things of God unless he has received the gift of the Holy Ghost.

The Egyptians did not know, when Moses and Aaron performed miracles, that they were the servants of God. They saw water apparently turned into blood; they saw frogs and insects come before their eyes; but they saw the magicians do the same things, and they had not sufficient knowledge to know the difference between the powers of the children of God and those possessed by themselves. Although they believed, yet they did not know, for want of the Holy Spirit. Their hearts were not sufficiently prepared to receive that heavenly light, that divine gift by which that power was among them.

How easily we may be operated upon, and how liable we are to be led astray by the opposite power! How easily the children of Israel were led astray! Their minds darkened and their faith was destroyed, because they did not retain this authority and power in their hearts. The thunders of Mount Sinai, the clouds and darkness, and all the magnificent scenery that surrounded them did not create within them that living, abiding testimony that comes by the Holy Ghost. There, in the midst of all these scenes, they could build a calf, fall down before it, and acknowledge it to be their god. They could say, not only in their own hearts, but to one another, “These be thy gods, O Israel!” While mountains were covered with vast clouds, while the lightnings were yet striking down, and while the whole mountain of Sinai was trembling because of the power of God, yet that power was not recognized—it was not respected, but a golden calf was considered to be the god that brought them out of the land of Egypt.

How vain, then, without the Holy Ghost, his abiding witness, this authority that comes from heaven and the knowledge of it! By this authority, sent down from heaven, we obtain a knowledge of future events; by it we obtain a knowledge as the fathers did—we receive that which is promised upon our heads, even that which is promised in regard to our posterity to the latest generations; by it we shall obtain all that was promised in relation to our ancestors—also that which is promised in relation to Priesthood, power, greatness, and glory. All these things are given through the authority that God has ordained and bestowed on man here upon the earth.

[Blessed the sacramental cup.]

Mankind have assumed to themselves various degrees of authority. Mankind have assumed to themselves, from the earliest ages, after our creation, to establish by their own authority civil governments, and also to establish by their own authority ecclesiastical or church governments. These governments that have assumed authority to rule, and reign, and govern the people, will crumble to ashes before the might, the strength, and power of the kingdom of our God. One, perhaps, has assumed authority after one method; another has assumed it after another: one has established one form of government, and another form: one has erected a standard of religion to guide the human mind in relation to their welfare and happiness, and another has set up a separate creed; and we find that our world, from ages immemorial, has been under all kinds of authority and government, civil and ecclesiastical; and the nations of the earth have honored these governments, more or less.

Perhaps it may be said that the Lord is the Author of all these governments. That we may admit in one sense, and in one sense only, because he controls those governments to a certain extent, as we have been told from this stand. But is the Lord the Author of a government that admits of no authority from heaven? He may permit those governments to exist, and he may control the result of their actions for the glory of his name and for his own benefit; but to suppose that the Lord has directly established the monarchical governments that have existed for ages that are past, and the Republican governments that have existed through or in different generations, and the various other governments, some of which have stood the test of centuries—to suppose that the Almighty organized all of them, I say, would be inconsistent.

But some might say, Is it not better to have these forms of government than to have none at all? Admit that it is better than to let every man go which way he pleases; and therefore, when the Lord saw that the people were so far departed from heaven and from him, and from the form given from heaven, he may have suffered those forms of government to be established, and that, too, for the benefit of the inhabitants of the earth; and he may have had, and may still hold, his hand indirectly over the wise men of the earth, and move upon their hearts to establish many good and wise principles for the benefit of the people. All this he has done for his name’s glory; therefore we acknowledge the hand of the Lord in controlling all the governments and kingdoms of the earth. But where is that heavenly, divine authority that comes down from above? Where is it to be found in the present generation, among all the nations and kingdoms in the four quarters of our globe, except it be in these mountains? Where has it been in ages that are past, since the Apostles fell asleep? You may traverse our earth from one side to the other to find a government established by the Almighty, and you cannot do it. Or, if you do not want to find a people who will say that God was at the foundation of the establishment of their governments, find a people who will say that God directs in their movements, in their councils, in their senates, in their houses of parliament—find a nation that will acknowledge that God governs them by the spirit of revelation. You cannot find such a one: there are none such in existence among the nations abroad, for they all say they do not acknowledge the principle. If you go over to the Old World, and travel from one end to the other and ask the question, Do you acknowledge God in your movements—in making war one with another? Does God give you revelation to guide you? Have you any Prophets that are appointed by divine authority, who can say, “Thus saith the Lord God concerning this people?” You will find the united testimony of kings and senators to be that God does not speak in this our day—there is no such thing as revelation in this generation. Then go to the ecclesiastical governors and ask the same question. Go to the Pope that pretends to occupy the chair of St. Peter, and he will say, “Oh, I occupy the same position as Peter—the same apostleship and calling.” Do you act in the same duties? He will answer, “Oh, yes, I guide and direct my people as Peter did; but there is no revelation now; for, since the days of John the Revelator, the canon of Scripture has been closed up, and we are to be guided by their revelations; but we are not to have any more.”

This is what the Pope would tell you; it is what the cardinals would say; and the bishops and clergy would all tell you that the canon of Scripture is forever closed. They have no God to decide relative to their principles and doctrines, and to correct errors that may creep into their church. In the next place, you may go to all the reformers and other branches of the ecclesiastical government, and with one united voice they will all tell you the same thing—viz., that the Bible contains all that is necessary and that can conduce to the benefit of the people. No prophet, no inspired man in our day, and has not been for many generations past; and hence there have been no additions to our Scriptures. This is the state of the whole world, apart from this divine authority that is claimed by the Latter-day Saints in these mountains.

If the question be asked us by all the nations and kingdoms upon the earth, “Do you profess to be guided in your councils by revelation from the heavens?” There would scarcely be a voice in the negative. I believe they would all answer in the affirmative, and say, “We believe in revelation from on high; we believe that angels have come and administered to the Apostles and Prophets, that intelligence has been sent down from heaven, that Prophets and Revelators have been in our midst, and that revelations have been given from the commencement of the Church, and that we know that the counsels and great movements of our Church have been dictated by revelation.” And here is where we differ from the whole world.

It must be remembered that this is not one of those points that are generally supposed to be nonessential: it is as different from many of those disputed questions as the sun at its meridian splendor is from the moon making her appearance in midday. This is a great and an important question.

Where is there power to govern civilly or ecclesiastically—I mean the power of God? Will he not bring all their thrones to an end? Where is there a law passed by human authority that will stand the searching glance of the Almighty? Where is there a kingdom or council organized among the nations that now exist that gets the counsel of the Almighty to direct them? All that do not obtain this direction will be rooted up in the great day to come; they will be overthrown and brought to naught. And even their domestic institutions are wrong. Where is there a nation among those governments where the people have been brought into the bonds of matrimony according to the order of God? When the great day of the Lord comes, it will come to end their marriages. There will be nothing but good feelings left between man and wife—between parents and children, because they have not been begotten, neither have their marriages been solemnized by that authority which is known on high. Then children can no longer recognize their fathers and mothers as such, neither can men and women any longer dwell together as husband and wife, when that great day shall come; for all things that are established by human authority must come to an end, and cease forever.

But when, on the other hand, we consider the authority that is given to us from heaven, we see something that will never come to an end. There will be something that will endure when the mountains and hills shall melt like wax, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. At that day there will be among the Latter-day Saints those holding that authority that is from on high—that inspiration that comes from heaven. Then, when the Great Eternal Son of the Father shall come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, we shall stand firm upon the rock that will endure forever, even by the authority that God has ordained.

How great reason the Latter-day Saints have to rejoice when they contemplate these great privileges and blessings, and when they contemplate that the same authority that God established in the beginning, when our first parents were upon the earth (the same authority that proceeded from the Great Eternal in the morning of creation), is again restored. Ours is an ecclesiastical Church, and an ecclesiastical state. We have something that is enduring, and this rejoices my soul when I think upon it. This present state of existence is, as the Apostle says, but a shadow, and our probation ends in death.

Many of the Latter-day Saints have been properly instructed in regard to this authority that is sent from God. Where is there an individual that has been united in the order of God who would like these bonds to be severed, and henceforth be left in conjecture? What would the world give, if they were acquainted with these divine principles? It is because they are ignorant of them that they are contented to marry in the way they do at the present time. We can see that they are principles that we need, and that are ordained by the Almighty, implanted in the bosoms of men and women. They are principles that minister to our happiness. Then why should those sacred ties be torn asunder when this body dies? Why should the pursuance of that course which sustains us in this life be broken up forever in that which is to come? Would this be consistent with the character of the All-wise Creator for him to implant certain principles, instincts, and passions in our nature, to be enjoyed in our present existence, and to break them asunder forever? No, it would not; neither has he any disposition to impart gifts, principles, and passions, and then destroy them again. To this end the Lord has ordained authority to be exercised upon the earth, and he is manifesting that it is He who rules in the heavens; and he will continue to show to the people that these ordinances, powers, privileges, and blessings enjoyed in this Church are to continue and endure forever, and that his house is a house of order. He can easily overthrow this human authority, and carry out that which is heavenly.

For the accomplishment of this, he has given the keys of the holy Priesthood, and there are many sitting before me who have received this Priesthood, and it will remain with the faithful after their graves shall have been covered up and the green grass grown thereon. It will go with them in the spirit world and aid them in disseminating the principles of salvation there, and by it they will be brought forth in the resurrection of the just.

The first speaker expressed his opinion as to the possibility of our attaining that point, or reaching that degree of perfection that will enable us to retain all the heavenly principles in our bosoms that we receive from day to day, and be able to practice upon them, and thereby overcome disease and death itself. This is all very good; but there is much to be done—many temptations to resist, and weaknesses to overcome, before we can live by the light which is in us.

If we fall into transgression and wallow in iniquity, we lose our position and our claim on the goodness and protection of our Heavenly Father; but, by a faithful adherence to the principles of virtue and righteousness, we shall prepare ourselves to come forth in the resurrection of the just, and dwell with the sanctified.

Let us shake off our imperfections and put away our follies, lift up our heads and rejoice, and call upon the name of the Lord. The promises made to us are sure, and we shall inherit them.

Consider the great blessings that have been already conferred upon us, having been sealed up by the Holy Spirit of promise to come forth with the just and inherit all things; and these have been recorded for our benefit. If we transgress, we shall have to suffer for that transgression here in the flesh; and after we lay our bodies down, we shall suffer in the spirit world, until we have suffered enough for all our sins, unless we have shed innocent blood. For those who have committed that sin there is no forgiveness in this world, nor in that which is to come.

Here is something that is permanent; here is a chance to take hold of the word of God, as described by Lehi. It is our privilege to hold fast and hold on to them. And if we should be cut off in the flesh and sent down to be punished in the spirit world, and there be buffeted by those spirits, and still retain our memories, we can say these sufferings will not endure forever, but we shall enjoy all that has been put upon our heads, and, through the Priesthood, and signs and tokens that have been revealed, come forth in the first resurrection, and pass by the sentinels and the Gods that stand to keep the way to eternal lives. And if there be thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, we shall come in possession of them, for this is the promise of the Almighty.

This is like an anchor to our souls; this is something to rejoice in beyond this world. It lays hold of eternal lives; it lays hold of eternal exaltations, of eternal thrones, of eternal authority and power to reign in the kingdom of God forever and ever.

This is the kind of authority and blessing that is calculated to satisfy mankind in relation to the things of God, and nothing else will.

May God bless us all, is my prayer. Amen.

A Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 8, 1860.

Having been requested, this afternoon, to address the congregation, I cheerfully do so, praying with all my heart that the Lord may grant unto me his Holy Spirit, that whatever I may say, whether much or little, may be dictated by that Spirit that proceeds from heaven, and then it will be right.

We read in the New Testament that the Apostles and righteous men in days of old preached the Gospel by the power of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. I do not know of any way by which the Gospel of Jesus Christ can be proclaimed with any beneficial effect, except in this manner.

We can arise before a congregation of the Saints and make use of the principles of the Gospel in our own words. We can say to the people, Repent. We can call upon them to believe. We can tell them concerning baptism, show them the nature of it, and the causes for which it was instituted. We may tell them concerning the Holy Ghost, and preach many things in the wisdom and language of man, and yet all this would not be acceptable in the sight of Heaven, unless we were dictated by the power and gift of the Holy Ghost. Our words would have no effect upon the hearts of the people; they would not be edified; the speaker would not be edified: no good, perhaps, would be accomplished.

The world, during the last seventeen centuries and upwards, have been engaged in preaching what they termed the Gospel; they have been engaged in preaching many principles that are true; they have preached many of the first principles, such as faith and repentance; they have preached the ordinances and institutions of heaven; they have reasoned with the people; they have portrayed many great and glorious truths before the people; they have called upon them to receive those truths, and yet they have taught without authority—without that Spirit that giveth utterance—taught without being called of God; and hence their teachings have not accomplished that which an inspired man’s would have accomplished, when sent of God. So it is in reading the revelations of heaven. We may take up the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Covenants, and commit them to memory—at least the subject matter therein, and we may suppose that we understand the doctrine of salvation, and conclude from our diligent study that we have become altogether acquainted with the prophecies and revelations; and yet, after all these things, without the gift of revelation directly to ourselves, or the gift of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven to rest upon us as speakers and hearers, we cannot expect to be materially benefited.

We may learn many things from the Book of Mormon. We may learn how this great western hemisphere was first peopled—how God brought the people from the Tower of Babel and established them upon North America. We may be informed of their history, of their numerous Prophets, concerning their wickedness and downfall. We may learn these things naturally as natural men, whether in or out of the Church, without the gift and power of the Holy Ghost and authority communicated from heaven resting upon us.

We cannot render ourselves any material service, or the world either, unless we have this power and authority: hence the propriety of that passage of Scripture recorded in the 2nd chapter of Paul’s 1st Epistle to the Corinthians—“For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” All our exertions, our reading, our meditations, and our endeavors to obtain the truth, without we obtain it lawfully, and not as natural men and women, will prove, in a measure, unavailing, though it may serve in some degree to remove darkness, to manifest what has been done, or what is to be done.

I am well pleased with the remarks that have been made upon this stand, more especially in relation to some few of the testimonies that I have heard, particularly bearing upon this matter. We were told by individuals upon this stand that they knew this work to be true. We were told by brother Watt that he knew this to be the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How do you know it? Just the same as the congregation know it. If the congregation have the gift and power of God to unfold the revelations of heaven to themselves, then they can comprehend how it is that the speakers know it is true. Though we may not be masters of language to communicate to others, we can appeal to their senses upon this subject. Do you know the things of God? If this question were asked, the whole congregation, with few exceptions, would lift up their voices with one heart and one mind, and say, We know these things to be true. How do you know them? You know them by the manifestations of the Spirit to your own hearts. You don’t know them by having seen with the natural eye, or by having discerned them with the natural understanding. You don’t know them because you have seen the sick healed, or the blind receive their sight. You don’t know them because you have seen the lame made to walk, or laid your hands upon the sick and seen them raised to perfect soundness, but because God has made them manifest to your hearts. Light has shone from heaven upon your understandings. You have tasted of that light by the spiritual sensations, or the spiritual faculties of your mind. You have understood and feasted upon the light that has come from heaven; and by this you know that the principles you have received are true. Do we understand clearly and properly that which is contained in the various revelations that God has given through his ancient as well as through his modern Prophets? Do we understand them in their true light? If we do, it is because we have received manifestations to ourselves, by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost.

What are Prophets for? What are revelators for? They are to reveal the truths of heaven for the benefit of the people. They bear testimony to the inhabitants of the earth, as you have heard declared from this stand, that the Lord has spoken and opened communications with men upon the earth, through the legitimate channel of his Priesthood. They also declare that men have been called by revela– tion from God, and sent forth with authority to baptize for the remission of sins. You hear this testimony, which is calculated to increase your confidence and your faith in the principles of life.

The word of God which is planted in your hearts begins to grow, to produce joy, light, and happiness; your mind begins to understand; you begin to receive revelation, and to receive those communications from the heavens that cause you to enjoy those blessings that you have heard spoken of by the servants of God. This makes all the Latter-day Saints witnesses; and thus we have a cloud of witnesses—a great army that can witness the truths of heaven as they have been revealed in these last days. This Spirit of revelation gives the Latter-day Saints boldness in their testimony.

What would have been our progress, brethren and sisters, if we had gone forth to the nations to publish these truths without the power of the Holy Ghost accompanying us? Could we have borne up under the power of persecution that has been heaped upon us? Could we have stood forth before the people and borne testimony as natural men to the great truths revealed from heaven? No, we could not. We should have shrunk from the task. It would have appeared too great for us to perform. The powers of darkness would have been able to crush us before them, without the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Lord foreknew this, and consequently he never designed that the great principles of his Gospel should be published to the nations, only by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.

There are many revelations that were given to the ancient servants of God that we never can comprehend without further revelation, and perhaps some of them we shall never understand in this state of probation. One thing is certain—that we cannot comprehend them, unless God shall give more revelation and manifest many things in their fulness which have heretofore only been revealed in part.

Many things that were unveiled to the ancient Prophets have become very much corrupted by men who have formed systems to suit their own darkened minds. The revelations of John, now so obscure, so dark, and so intricate, that scarcely a person can comprehend the great things that are pointed out to take place in the last days, will be unfolded. Now there is scarcely a man living that can discern the meaning of the Apostle.

When this revelation was given to him, it was plain and simple, and easy to be understood of men; and all people possessed of the Spirit of the living God could understand it, so far as it was not sealed up. Some portions of it the Lord designed that they should not comprehend in that day. For instance, what the seven thunders uttered and several other things that are mentioned, no man understands, and will not until the proper time shall come. Since the days of John, it has been changed and altered by men who did not possess the Spirit of revelation, and from them it has been handed down to us in its present imperfect form, and we never shall understand it until God reveals it unto his servants the Prophets in the last days. Then the things written in that book will be plain, and we shall understand them.

So it is with regard to many revelations contained in the New Testament. The 24th chapter of Matthew, for instance, the sayings of Jesus to his disciples have undergone the same change in translation and in alterations by corrupt men. It is true, the Lord has given us information and bestowed upon us great favor by new revelation, and the Spirit bears witness that they are from heaven. We know them to be such. We comprehend them, we discern them, and say that God designed to reveal them to his servant Joseph. There are many who can comprehend those things and realize that they are from some superior source than the natural mind of man.

I might name some few things which may be found in the 24th chapter of Matthew, that are much plainer and much more simple as they were revealed to the Prophet Joseph in the new translation—so much so that it would almost satisfy even a natural-minded person that there has been a superior wisdom manifest in this new translation. In speaking of the signs of the coming of the Son of Man, and of the preaching of the Gospel to all the world, the new translation reads as follows—“Again, shall this Gospel of the Kingdom be preached in all the world, for a witness, and then shall the end come.” Now, the word “again” makes the thing all plain. It is as much as to say, You shall go forth, you shall preach to the people and declare my testimony among the nations of the earth; and after this there shall come a falling away, and there shall arise many false Christs and false prophets. Then shall follow many judgments and tribulations upon the face of the earth. And after the world has been in darkness for centuries, again shall this Gospel of the Kingdom be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. What end? I answer, the end of the wicked world—the destruction of the wicked from the face of our globe.

In another passage to be found in that same revelation, the 24th chapter of Matthew, Jesus says, in speaking of his second coming, “As the light of the morning cometh out of the east, andshineth unto the west, and covereth the whole earth, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.” Now, how much plainer is this to the natural understanding! And how much plainer is this than the old translation as rendered by the wisdom of man! How does the old translation read? It reads, “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”

The lightning is more visible and more frequent in some parts of the earth than others; and when it does appear, it is only visible for a few scores of miles at once, and is not visible in all parts; and consequently, this was not a proper figure to convey the idea. How much plainer is the rendering—“As the light of the morning cometh out of the east, and shineth unto the west, and covereth the whole earth, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.”

How did this Latter-day Work commence? It did not commence all at once. On the 6th day of April, 1830, as it was justly observed by one of the speakers, there were not enough members to form the Church; but it came forth like the dim twilight of the morning, the darkness beginning by slow degrees to flee away as the light slowly advanced. It has grown brighter and brighter from that time unto the present.

Like the light of the sun, the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ will cover the whole earth; it will speak from land to land and from kingdom to kingdom, until it deluges the whole earth with the brilliancy of its light and the glory of its power. The testimonies of the servants of God, as well as the testimonies of his power, exhibiting his wrath and his sore displeasure, will go forth as has been proclaimed from this stand. And instead of the testimonies of the servants of God being smothered up by the persecution of our enemies, and the light being hidden under a bushel in some obscure corner, the decree of Heaven is that the light shall go forth, shining more and more glorious in the midst of the nations; and it will penetrate the darkest corners of the earth—it will visit the islands of the sea, until it has searched out every creature under heaven. There is no ear but shall hear, and no heart but shall be penetrated by the truths that shall be sent forth in this last dispensation.

Missionaries have been called. If they go and magnify their callings, they will be filled with the testimony that has been so freely manifested during our Conference; they will be filled with the Holy Ghost, and be able to bear testimony of the truths of the Gospel. It may be apparently in weakness. They may consider it so themselves. Their language may be feeble, their words feebly uttered, their sentences broken; but, after all, it will be the power of God unto this generation.

If you Missionaries will seek for the testimony of the Holy Ghost to go with you—if you will seek diligently for the power of God to accompany you, you need not be afraid of the nations; for your testimony will condemn the people who reject it, and it will save all those who receive it.

I look forward to the progress of this work through the Saints that are abroad and the Elders that are ordained on Foreign Missions, as well as by those Missionaries that are sent forth to their assistance. I look for this work to progress, and I cannot get anything else into my heart. I do not look for this people to be eternally assailed by their enemies, nor do I look for the Elders to be continually asleep; but I expect that they will bear a faithful testimony among the people of every nation where they are sent. And this testimony will be increased: it cannot be otherwise. That prophecy of Nephi recorded in the Book of Mormon must be fulfilled; the servants of God must be armed with righteousness, and with the power of the Almighty, and with great glory among the nations, wherever the Church is organized. It will be such a display as will excite the people against the Saints, or they would not, according to prophecy, gather together the armies of the wicked from among all nations to fight the people of the Most High. This must take place. The wicked must be gathered against the Saints. It is as it was stated by brother Hyde this forenoon about the dream. That dream had reference to foreign persecutions.

One thing is certain—that every nation under the heavens will array itself against the kingdom of God. Inasmuch as some individuals among the nations receive it, they will muster their forces and try to destroy the saints of the living God. To prepare for this, we must increase in the Spirit of God as our enemies increase in the spirit of darkness against us, and by the power of God proclaim in their ears a testimony that will overcome the wicked. There is no possibility of the wicked triumphing over this Latter-day Kingdom. There may be many who will have to fall—many who will have to suffer materially; but when we get to the home of the Saints of the living God, the wicked will cease from troubling us.

I look forward to a day that is not far distant, with great rejoicing; and that is a day when we shall all be engaged, as we are this afternoon, in partaking of the sacrament—the symbols of bread and wine, or in other words, the symbols of the body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I look forward with joyful anticipation to that glorious time. I look around upon this assembly, and when I see them partaking of this holy ordinance, and consider what Jesus has done by his sufferings, then I look forward to the time when he shall be in our midst, and we partake of these symbols in his presence.

Will not this be a joyful time? Who can but rejoice in a scenery of this description! Suppose you were expecting that this was to take place next Sabbath day, who are pure in heart? Who are ready for such an event? What would be your feelings? Would you sorrow and mourn? Would it not be one of the most joyful messages to your ears that ever saluted them, to suppose that the time was so near at hand when you should partake of bread and wine with the ancient Apostles, and meet with the Savior and all the Saints of former days—those that lived before the flood and those that have lived since the flood—to think that all this is to be made manifest to man—that we are to look upon the face of our Redeemer and be crowned with glory as he is—would not this be joyful tidings?

Although this is not going to take place next Sabbath, yet we know one thing—that in many of the revelations given to this Church, the Lord has closed by saying—“Behold I come quickly; and my reward is with me to give unto every man according to his works.” There are many revelations of this kind, and these words are true and faithful, for the Lord does not speak in vain; but he has thrown this out as an encouragement to those that fear him and keep his law.

The day is at hand, the morning has broken, the sun of the Gospel has arisen in the eastern horizon, and is beginning to shine with a degree of splendor. The time is near—how near, no man knoweth: the day and the hour when the Son of Man shall come is a secret. In a revelation given to this Church, it is said that no man shall know until he comes; therefore we cannot expect to know the day nor the hour; but we know it is near at hand, and what a consolation it is. There may be men that will know within a year—that will have revelation to say within one or two years when the Lord shall appear. I do not know that there is anything against this.

But the great question is, brethren and sisters, Are we ready? Are we perfect enough for this day? Are we honest enough? And are we filled with integrity enough to be ready for the Savior and his holy angels? Is there a sufficiency of union? Have we that firmness in our minds that we can stand in their presence—that we can look them in the eye and say that all is right? If we are pure, when we see a pure and holy being, clothed with all the glory of the heavens, surrounded with light that far outshines the sun at noonday, so much so that his eye discerns all things and pierces the inmost recesses of the heart—when we can look him in the face, a thrill of joy will run through our bodies, and we shall be happy.

I tell you, brethren and sisters, this would be one of the most glorious periods that we could possibly imagine: it would be one of the most joyful there is in the future. We know that men upon the earth have been so clothed with the glory and power of God that the people could not look upon their countenances; and why was this? It was because the people were wicked. When Moses had been upon the mountain, standing in the presence of God, being in his presence forty days receiving the tables of stone, and came down to teach the people, they could not endure his presence. Why? Because that glory that was manifested could not be endured by the wicked. But in this instance, the Lord permitted it to be manifested for a while. And when the people looked upon the countenance of Moses, they perceived that there were rays of light emanating from him—that he looked different from what he formerly did—that he was clothed upon with something which they had not been accustomed to see, and they fled afar off. Moses, therefore, was under the necessity of taking a veil and putting it over his face, for they could not endure it. They fled from the presence of a mortal man when he was clothed upon with glory, or with a reflection of the glory of God; therefore the only way was for him to cover his face, and then converse with the children of Israel.

Now, if a mortal being is permitted to have this power, how much greater will be the terror to the wicked when immortal beings shall appear—beings who have not simply been with the Lord forty days, but who have been with him thousands of years, who were redeemed before the flood and after the flood, and who have been in the presence of God more or less ever since—who have beheld his countenance, who have been seated upon thrones, swaying a scepter of power (as Abraham), and reigning over millions of individuals—when they, as well as the redeemed of all nations and generations, shall make their appearance, and when they shall not attempt to put a veil over their faces as Moses did, but permit all the glory that they have accumulated for so many years to be visible to the human family! That will be a day of terror, astonishment, and dismay unto all the wicked.

At times when I reflect upon this subject, I try to portray before my mind the various revelations that God has given concerning this matter. There is one in particular which says, “Angels shall be sent forth to sound the trump of God, crying, Lo and behold! The bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.” That will be a great time, independent of that of which I have been speaking, when Jesus shall come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Before that time, angels are to be sent forth to sound the trumpet, so that all the ends of the earth are to hear it, and all people are to be forewarned that the time of the coming of the bridegroom is at hand—that the time of the coming of the great Being has arrived. Then, when those angels have sounded, another great and terrible thing is to take place.

I simply mention these things to show how one thing after another is to precede the coming of the Lord.

After the angels have sounded this in the ears of all living, we are informed that there will be a great sign in the heavens. It is not to be limited so that some few only of the human family can see it; but it is said, “All people shall see it together!” At least, it is to be like our sun seen over one entire side of the globe, and then passing immediately round to the other, or else it will encircle the whole earth at the same time. But the bridegroom does not come then. These are only the preceding events to let the Latter-day Saints and the pure in heart know that these are the times that they may trim up their lamps and prepare for the triumphant appearing of their Lord.

After those angels that I have alluded to have flown through the heavens, this sign is made manifest; and what next? Seven angels are appointed to give their signs and testimonies to the truth of this proclamation of the Gospel, the Latter-day Saints having previously given theirs. Thus we have the former angels sounding their trumpets, then the great sign, and then comes the seven angels. The first proclaims that great Babylon is about to fall, and her influence to be destroyed. He proclaims that all who remain in Babylon are bound in bundles and their bands made strong, so that no man can unloose them, and that they are therefore prepared for the burning.

After all nations have heard the proclamation, there will be silence in the heavens, and I do not know but on the earth too; for the people will doubtless be overpowered with astonishment to see an angel, the sound of whose trump shall pierce the ears of all living. After this, I say, there will be silence in heaven for half-an-hour.

Then, after the wicked begin to recover and get a little strength, behold and lo! The curtain of heaven will be unfolded as a scroll that is rolled up. You know how our great maps are rolled out to expose their contents to the people; and the Lord has said the heavens shall be unfolded as a scroll that is rolled up is unfolded. What will be seen when this takes place? Our Savior, our Redeemer, will unveil his face. That Being who was born in Bethlehem—that being who has saved the world by offering his own life, how will he appear? Will he come as a common man? Or how will he make his appearance? He will appear as a being whose splendor and glory will cause the sun to hide his face with shame.

The sun is a very glorious body; and when you look upon it, so great is the light, that you can scarcely see surrounding objects; but the light of the sun is nothing to be compared with the glory of that personage who shall appear when the heavens shall be unveiled, or unfolded like a scroll. The light of the sun will dwindle away, and he shall hide his face with shame. Who will be with Jesus when he appears? The decree has gone forth, saying, Mine Apostles who were with me in Jerusalem shall be clothed in glory and be with me. The brightness of their countenance will shine forth with all that refulgence and fulness of splendor that shall surround the Son of Man when he appears. There will be all those personages to whom he alludes. There will be all the former-day Saints, Enoch and his city, with all the greatness and splendor that surround them: there will be Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as they sit upon their thrones, together with all the persons that have been redeemed and brought near unto the presence of God. All will be unfolded and unveiled, and all this will be for the wicked to look upon, as well as the righteous; for the wicked will not as yet have been destroyed. When this takes place, there will be Latter-day Saints living upon the earth, and they will ascend and mingle themselves with that vast throng; for they will be filled with anxiety to go where the Saints of the Church of the Firstborn are, and the Church of the Firstborn will feel an anxiety to come and meet with the Saints on earth, and this will bring the general assembly of the redeemed into one; and thus will be fulfilled the saying of Paul, “That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.”

About the same time that the Latter-day Saints are quickened (not immortalized), there will be Saints that have slumbered and slept for ages, and they are to be quickened and taken up into the heavens. Now the wicked are to see all these things; and if power of language could be given to them, what would they say? They would turn to the rocks and the mountains, and say, O mountains and rocks, fall upon us and hide us from the presence of Him that sits upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. And I have no doubt but they will have the power to say it. But they must endure the sight. After which, they must be consumed according to that which is spoken, and the heathen nations must be redeemed, and the way be prepared for the Lord to dwell upon the earth. The mortal Saints will then be transfigured and sanctified, but not immortalized. They will be prepared for the millennial reign. The tables will then be spread, and the Latter-day and Former-day Saints will be together to partake of the sacrament just as it is this afternoon, only more perfectly prepared.

This is my object in thus portraying these things before you this afternoon, for as often as we do this we show forth the Lord’s death till he come. When that time comes, he will partake of the fruit of the vine with us; and with him will be Moroni, Mormon, and Lehi, and all the inhabitants of this vast American continent who have been saved through the Gospel. There will be Enoch’s city, the Former-day Saints, and the vast throng of resurrected Saints to sit down and partake of the supper of the great Bridegroom, and he will administer in the midst of his brethren.

I hope and pray that I may be prepared to be one of that joyful throng to be assembled there with a pure heart, and one that is upright before God. I also hope that my brethren will be with me, and that we shall have the privilege of celebrating the marriage supper of the Lamb, for that will be a happy day.

May God bless you! Amen.

Remarks by Elder Orson Pratt, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, February 12, 1860.

I have listened with much pleasure to the remarks that have been made by brother Hyde.

The subjects upon which he has dwelt this morning are of great importance to the Saints of the living God. They are subjects upon which I have often meditated, and it rejoices my heart to hear them so nobly illustrated before this congregation.

The subject of the concentration of the mind is one that both old and young are interested in, from the fact that it has not only a bearing on this present life, but upon our future state of existence.

If we should inquire how it is that mankind in this present life are able to accomplish naturally many great and important things, the answer would be—Because they have the power of concentrating their minds upon the subjects that are before them. It is, therefore, not only a subject that interests the Saints, but it is one which interests all intelligent people more or less. Nothing very great can be accomplished without a concentration of mind.

If we had time, we might illustrate this subject still further. We might refer you to some of the great and remarkable examples on record, in relation to those men who are denominated by the world “learned men.” See what they have accomplished. For instance, permit me to refer to Sir Isaac Newton. How was it that he was able to make his important discoveries? Because he had disciplined his mind to that extent that he could concentrate it for a long period of time upon one object. What discoveries did he make by this means? He discovered that peculiar kind of force that holds together the celestial bodies of the universe. He discovered not only the force, but its intensity. He not only discovered the intensity of the force which holds together the planetary bodies of our solar system, but he discovered its variation, depending upon the distance of those bodies one from another. But these were only the very elements of his discoveries. Having, by the concentration of his mind upon these subjects, learned some of the leading characteristics of this force, he was enabled to trace out its results in many of its intricate bearings upon the variety of motions which the different bodies of our system have, explaining them as the results of the force which he had discovered.

What a remarkable concentration of mind there must have been in order to solve a problem of so intricate a nature!

It is true we find in some of our elementary treatises that Newton discovered the law of gravitation by merely observing an apple fall from an apple tree. But I would inquire, was it the first apple that ever fell? No. Was he the first man that ever observed a falling apple? No. Why, then, did not other people discover this universal law, if barely seeing an apple fall was sufficient to open the discovery? Such was not the fact: it was not every man that had disciplined his mind to contemplate the subject of the forces of the universe. It was not every man that had made himself thoroughly acquainted with the dynamical action, or the laws of motion and forces.

Newton had trained his mind upon this subject. He had, while in college, concentrated the energies of his mind for many years upon the subject of mathematical and mechanical problems, inventing a new species of geometry. All these studies were calculated to habituate him to a control of his mind. Naturally speaking, there is no study which is so well calculated to give a concentration of mind as that of geometry or mathematics.

If a person follows these studies, he becomes accustomed in time to this habit, and obtains power to abstract his mind from surrounding objects, and to make it bear with all its force on the problem he is trying to solve. In geometry, for instance, he learns to distinguish the relations one part of his diagram has to another. He reasons from known relations to those which are unknown, and thus discovers many new truths.

By this means he not only discovers important geometrical truths, but also at the same time disciplines his mind. The habitual concentration thus acquired enables him to bring all the energies of his intellect to bear upon any other branch of science, or to reason closely upon all subjects which he may have occasion to investigate.

For instance, when he rises before a congregation, if he is accustomed to public speaking, he can bring all his mind to bear on the subject before him, and concentrate his arguments to prove the point he wishes. His mind is more powerful by this discipline and habit than if he had suffered his thoughts to ramble all his previous life.

I make these observations to show what great things have been accomplished by concentration. Therefore, if a man can accomplish so much without the particular aid of the Holy Spirit—that is, in a natural point of view, how much more can he grasp within his comprehension, and how much greater will be the work that he can accomplish in a spiritual point of view? That is, when the Spirit of the living God rests upon him. If a person trains his mind to walk in the spirit, and brings his whole mind to bear upon its opera– tions, and upon the principles of faith which are calculated to put him in possession of the power of God, how much greater will be his facilities for obtaining knowledge than those which any natural man possesses.

All those various problems solved by Newton and the great and magnificent discoveries made by him could be learned by a spiritually-minded man in one hundredth part of the time. In what manner? In the manner which has already been pointed out to you by Elder Hyde—namely, by the concentration of mind. By this, we can penetrate, as it were, through the veil, and receive revelations from the heavens—from those superior beings who comprehend not only the discoveries that are made by man upon the earth, but ten thousand times ten thousand more than have ever entered into the heart of man to conceive of. Those beings to a properly concentrated mind can reveal more knowledge in one day than what can be obtained by the learned in a score of years.

Here, then, the Latter-day Saints have the advantage of the present generation. In the first place, we have the same natural facilities that the learned of the world have; we have the same books they have, and the same privilege of searching out knowledge; and, in addition to all those facilities, if we are walking up to our privileges before God, we are entitled to the gift of the Holy Ghost, which is the Spirit of revelation, which, when we properly train our minds according to the law of God, can open to us the hidden mysteries of the works of God—the mysteries of astronomy, chemistry, geology, and ten thousand mysteries which never could be unfolded by the natural reasoning of man.

Let us combine these two together; let us learn to train our minds religiously and scientifically, and in the proper channel. “But,” inquires one, “ought we not sometimes to let our minds rest?” Yes. God has ordained day and night. The night he intended for a season of rest. If we observe the rest God has granted to us, and cast from our minds everything which would trouble them, and sleep sweetly during the shades of night, our minds will be abundantly refreshed, and we shall be enabled in the morning to begin and discipline them anew with fresh vigor.

We can train the mind for several hours during the day, bringing it to bear upon whatever subject is necessary. The Lord had in view, in introducing day and night, not only the rest of our bodies, but also that of our minds.

But many suppose that we have so many temporalities to influence us, and so many causes, perplexities, and anxieties of this world to contend against, that we do not have power to concentrate our minds as we could wish. I am aware of this. But different men have different callings. Some are called to one purpose, and some to another. It is not to be expected that the man who is called to labor at his farming occupation, his mechanical business, or his manufacturing establishment, can discipline his mind in relation to some scientific pursuits to the same degree as another who has more leisure, or whose calling differs. But there is in this thing, generally speaking, too great a neglect, not only in scientific men, but in those who are pursuing other callings.

There are many hours that run to waste which might be profitably employed in training the mind, when the body is not fatigued, which are spent in idleness or foolishness, and which do not tend to benefit you or your generations after you. There are hours and hours which might be profitably spent in disciplining the mind and treasuring up both spiritual and natural knowledge, that often run to waste without benefiting anyone.

The study of science is the study of something eternal. If we study astronomy, we study the works of God. If we study chemistry, geology, optics, or any other branch of science, every new truth we come to the understanding of is eternal; it is a part of the great system of universal truth. It is truth that exists throughout universal nature; and God is the dispenser of all truth—scientific, religious, and political. Therefore let all classes of citizens and people endeavor to improve their time more than heretofore—to train their minds to that which is best calculated for their good and the good of the society which surrounds them.

I do not know when I have been so much interested as I have been in hearing the remarks from Elder Hyde this morning on this subject. It is a subject that has impressed itself on my mind. Last Sunday, in Tooele City, I delivered a discourse, showing the necessity of the concentration of mind in family prayer and in our secret prayers. But these points have been ably handled by Elder Hyde.

In conclusion, I wish to say that it is not only necessary to have a single eye to the glory of God in searching for religious truths, but also in acquiring scientific truths; and in all our researches for truth we should seek the aid of the Spirit of God. Amen.